Monaco start France’s European adventure with Leverkusen in Monte Carlo

This midweek sees the first group stage games for the five French teams involved in European competition this season. This followed a not-very-successful-overall set of results in the qualifying play-offs, which saw Lille drop down to the Europa League after being beaten 3-0 on aggregate by Porto, Saint-Etienne needing penalties to see off Turkish septimo Karabükspor, and Lyon dropping out of things entirely after being beaten on away goals by Romanian cup-winners Astra Giurgiu.

Champions League

Group C

Monaco’s current woes have been well-documented, with key player James Rodriguez being followed out the door by Radamel Falcao, and a worrying lack of options in central defence, where Ricardo Carvalho was most recently partnered with right-back Andrea Raggi in the absence of Aymen Abdennour with a thigh injury and with new acquisition Wallace yet to appear. Their only new purchase was 20-year-old midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko from Rennes, leaving Leonardo Jardim with a lot of young players and a heavy reliance on a few veterans (Carvalho, Jeremy Toulalan, Dimitar Berbatov) and one-man determination machine Valere Germain, to get things going.

They start at home on Tuesday 16th September to Bayer Leverkusen, who were fourth in the Bundesliga last season, and saw off Copenhagen 7-2 on aggregate in the play-offs. They have new aquisitions at nine (Josep Drmic – Switzerland) and ten (Hakan Çalhanoğlu – Turkey) and returning loanee and winger Karim Bellarabi, who all look like they could be trouble, and our old friend Emir Spahic in defence. Then there’s a tricky away trip to Zenit (Russian runners-up last season, currently six points clear after seven games) and back-to-back games against Portuguese champions Benfica.

Monaco are likely to play 4-3-3 with a midfield trio of Geoffrey Kondogbia, Joao Moutinho and Toulalan, who need to be much more commanding than they have been in Ligue 1. Under Jardim they have been far from convincing, with a complete lack of leadership from the veterans and a look of rabbits in headlights for the talented youngsters.

Qualification from the group is a big ask, and even third place might be out of their reach unless they can turn things around, fast. This is going to be a huge test for Monaco, and so far they look far from ready.

Group F

Due to FFP limitations/injuries/etc, PSG also have some problems at the back, most recently playing a central pairing of Zoumana Camara and Marquinhos against Rennes, as both David Luiz and Thiago Silva are injured and possible cover Serge Aurier got knocked out cold in CAN qualifying, so was also unavailable. Camara scored, which was slightly unexpected, and Aurier and Luiz are expected to travel to Amsterdam, but the Parisiens will be hoping that they can get their big defensive dogs back and reintegrated before playing Barcelona at the end of the month. Their forward line remains as intimidating as ever.

They start away to Dutch champions Ajax on Wednesday 17th September, welcome Barca to the Parc (again), then meet Cypriot champions Apoel Nicosia (if you were wondering where Rafik Djebbour had got to).

The big dilemma for Laurent Blanc is who to play in the midfield trio ahead of a makeshift back four. Camara and Marquinhos need protection, but to play both Thiago Motta and Marco Verratti leaves PSG with only one of the three looking to bring the ball forward. Javier Pastore has impressed in a number of the early season games, but it does mean that the inspirational Blaise Matuidi is starting on the bench. Against Barcelona, Blanc needs to know who his most effective trio is, and right now he is far from sure – but as with the defensive issues, he needs to balance looking forward to that match with giving Ajax the respect they deserve.

Europa League

Group F

Saint-Etienne kick off their campaign away at Azerbaijani champions Qarabag, who have already gone through three qualifying rounds to get here, thumping Maltese champions Valetta 5-0 on aggregate before going out of Champions League qualifying 2-3 to Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg. They then drew 1-1 away at Twente in the Europa play-offs to win their place in the group stages for (we think) the first time ever. Qarabag have a couple of Brazilians on the books, including last season’s top scorer Reynaldo (22), predecessor Richard Almeida (13), and the delightfully-named Chumbinho.

Saint-Etienne have ten points from five games, which looks fine on the face of it, but the start to their season is mostly marked by the 5-0 hammering they endured at the Parc des Princes in game 4. They may be without Romain Hamouma who picked up a calf-strain against Caen at the weekend, and Loic Perrin is not expected back before mid-October with a muscle injury.

Elsewhere in the group, ASSE will face Ukrainian dauphins Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Italian giants Inter Milan, now with added Yann M’Vila on loan from Rubin Kazan, as well as a fairly intimidating squad list – their goalscorers at the weekend against Sassuolo: Icardi, Kovacic, Icardi, Osvaldo, Icardi, Osvaldo, Guarin.

Group H

Lille will be licking their wounds after dropping down a level and probably not best pleased with the group they have ended up in. They may be surrounded by teams who came fifth in their domestic leagues, but those leagues were the Premiership, Bundesliga, and the Russian Premier League, so this cannot be taken lightly. They start at home to FC Krasnodar, in what looks like being the easiest match of the group, so les Dogues will need to hit the ground running. Their opponents have the traditional sprinkling of Brazilians, Eliot Rothwell identifying Wanderson and Joaozinho as key players, as well as Uzbekistan midfielder Odil Ahmedov.

Later on, Wolfsburg feature familiar name Josuha Guilavigui on loan from Atletico Madrid, and a host of internationals including Kevin de Bruyne, Luiz Gustavo, a shy retiring chap called Nicklas Bendtner, and veteran striker Ivica Olic, who already has two goals in three matches in the league and doesn’t seem to be slowing down any at 35 years old. Everton, meanwhile, have Roberto Martinez and strength all over the park, including a rather scary forward line including Romelu Lukaku and Samuel Eto’o.

Overall, it looks like the Lille defence will need to be as strong as ever to hold out against some bankable attacking lines, and – as is traditional – find somebody to put the ball in the net. After a poor start in their last league game against Nantes, a clearly detailed half-time team-talk did the trick as Divock Origi got his first from open play of the season, and substitute Rony Lopes his debut goal for the club; we also got to see new acquisition Michael Frey for the first time. This could be another big ask for LOSC, but if the youngsters can click, there is a lot of potential there.

Group K

Guingamp, conversely, are starting with probably the hardest game of the group, away at Fiorentina, who came fourth in Serie A last season. The winners of the Coupe de France lost main goalscorer Mustapha Yatabare (twenty in all competitions) to Trabzonspor and after beating Lens on day one, lost 1-0 to Marseille, and got thumped 4-0 by Lorient. Things were starting to look a bit iffy, but they then pulled off a fine home win over Bordeaux in game four with goals from Moustapha Diallo and Christophe Mandanne (penalty) and a fine performance from Newcastle loanee Sylvain Marveaux. The Viola are yet to score this season, but looking at their squad you have to think that that won’t last.

EAG’s other opponents were both third-placed teams last season, PAOK from Greece and Dinamo Minsk from Belarus. PAOK feature Cameroonian international goalkeeper Charles Itandje (who can be either brilliant or not, apparently at random), names to conjure with Razvan Rat and Maarten Martens, and a host of Greek internationals, including their captain Dimitrios Salpingidis. Minsk have Sierra Leonian centre back Umara Bangura and blast-from-the-past Ivorian winger Franck Dja Djedje, cousin of Brice, who caused Lyon some problems last year when playing for Tchernomorets Odessa.

Good luck to all the French sides in European competition – you can catch all the coverage on @FrenchftWeekly