With Ligue 1 now into its final two rounds of matches, the relegation battle is taking increasingly unexpected twists. Despite there being nine sides still facing the drop, it looks likely that the bottom three will be made up of the current sides placed 14th or lower. The current bottom three have been hovering around the drop zone for the past few months although the sides just ahead of them have also been flirting with the dreaded drop in recent weeks.
All around Europe the season is coming to an end. In Paris as Paris Saint-Germain fight for Le Championnat across the city Red Star FC 93 are fighting to stay in the Championnat National and avoid dropping to the amateur leagues. The last time we checked in with Red Star was back in February when they drew 0-0 with city rivals Paris FC.
Ten games have passed since then, and the results have been very inconsistent, only three wins and 10 goals, four defeats and three draws saw the side still lead by Vincent Doukantie slip back towards the relegation zone.
Laurent Blanc will begin to announce his prelimanary squad for Euro 2012 today. The first announcement will be players playing outside of Ligue 1. With the French based players called up at a later date. Last month Jason picked his 23-man squad for the tournament and today Andrew will pick the 23 players that he would take to Poland and Ukraine.
Whenever picking a squad I am very much in the school of picking two players for every position and then having players that could play in a number of positions. This leaves you with various options and a flexibility that you need for a tournament run. So without further a do, here is my 23-man squad. I will justify any decisions that could be questioned.
On March 23, the city of New York was rewarded with the Trophee des Champions. The game, set to kick off at 3:00pm local time on July 28th (9:00pm French time), will feature Lyon and the Ligue Un winner. Considered to be the start to the Ligue 1 season when the previous league and Coupe de France winner square off for the “French Super Cup”, this year, the 17th edition will take place just outside Manhattan. For the fourth year in-a-row, the annual tournament will be played abroad– Canada hosted the tournament in 2009, Tunisia in 2010, while the 2011 version was hosted in Morocco.
Today it was announced by various sources that Rennes Yann M’Vila was very close to sealing a deal with Arsenal. French journalist Julien Laurens quoted that the deal was “99% complete”. Arsenal have apparently agreed a €22 million deal for the 21-year old, the only snag seems to be that M’Vila himself is waiting for Arsenal to confirm their third place finish in the Premier League before he signs a contract.
The midfielder featured in our Le 50 project – here is that profile.
Montpellier climbed back to the top of Ligue 1 with a superb 2-0 win over Rennes on Tuesday night. Here is the game as it happened on our @FFW_LIVE account
Evening folks. @AGibneyftbl here to guide you through Rennes v Montpellier – massive game! Can MHSC go 3 points clear.
Teams – RENNES v Montpellier: Costil – Mavinga, Biyik, Apam, KTC – Tettey, M’Vila – Boukari, Feret, Pitroipa – Kembo
PSG managed to keep their 1st clean sheet in 12 games with their 2-0 win over Saint-Etienne. However I dont think they will keep one today, history has stood out massively for me in this fixture, in the last nine games since 2008 both teams have scored in the fixture.
In PSG’s last six away games both teams have scored, whilst I do think PSG will win, I think Valenciennes will grab a goal.
Back both teams to score with odds of 1.73 on bet365
To take advantage of Mark’s hot tip make sure to click the link above and place your bet, or sign up if you don’t have an account.
The Under 17 European Championships start today in Slovenia. France are one of the favourites to lift the trophy after going through qualification with a 100% record. The kick-off their tournament night against Iceland and we will be trying to keep you up to date with their performances here on FFW.
Below you will find the 18-man squad picked by Jean-Claude Giuntini to try and win France’s second U17 European trophy and see his young side fulfill their potential
Welcome to this mid-week edition of FFW. With a full calender of games during the week Jon and Andrew joined up to look at what the latest games had to offer. Auxerre climbed out of the relegation zone with a win over Dijon.
Ajaccio, Caen both won and Brest and Sochaux dropped points. They also look at the chase for the Europa League and of course the league championship.
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We are always looking to bring you the best prizes and competitions here at French Football Weekly. And this is a big one. You may have already seen the amazing t-shirts over at threenil.com – superb designs and a wonderful and fast growing company. We are delighted to be able to strike up a partnership and we have ONE beautiful t-shirt to giveaway.
Would you like to get your hands on one of these gorgeous Zinedine Zidane t-shirts?
I’m sure you’ll agree, the t-shirt is a work of art and a spectacular prize for a competition. We would like to go out with a bang this season. On the 20th of May the Ligue 1 season ends, to win the t-shirt all you need to do is predict how many goals will be scored in Week 38.
On average the amount of goals in Ligue 1 is around 25. The highest amount is 33 goals, and that has happened three time. The lowest amount is 17 goals, and that was back on week 5.
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