Gradel at the Double to Cap Off Superb Season #FFWTOTW
That’s it. All done. All sorted. 38 rounds finish with the traditionally chaotic multiplex; ten simultaneous games, 32 goals, one new stadium being opened, one match stoppage, multiple fireworks and a trophy presentation. It’s a lot to keep up with, and that’s before our correspondent on Twitter realised that the multiplex they were watching didn’t include two of the games.
Lens got the ball rolling with the first goal of the evening as Pablo Chavarria finished a cute cut-back from Aristote Madiani, in what turned out to be the only goal as RCL said farewell to Ligue 1 with a win over Nantes, who dominated but couldn’t get through a determined defence.
Nice got the second through Neal Maupay, as Carlos Eduardo managed to get a long cross back across the face of goal for his young team-mate; an Eric Bautheac double had them 3-0 up away at Toulouse, before OGCN clearly took their eye off the ball and anyone kicking it, as Wissam Ben Yedder and Oscar Trejo got two in two minutes to make things a bit more respectable for the home side after a fairly underwhelming season.
Elsewhere in five-goal-thriller territory, we jinxed Caen v Evian at half-time by saying it was shaping up to be a battle of the goalkeepers – Caen then scored three in ten minutes, a double from Herve Bazile book-ending an own goal from Modou Sougou, before also relaxing a bit and conceding from Olivier Sorlin and Sougou (at the right end this time) deep into added time. PSG topped off their season with a brace from Edinson Cavani and one from Adrien Rabiot, while Reims kept things interesting through Aissa Mandi and Grejohn Kyei, before making themselves scarce for the on-pitch trophy presentation. And Lille rained hard on Metz’s farewell to Ligue 1, winning 4-1 with goals from Florent Balmont, Idrissa Gana Gueye, and a Nolan Roux double (inc pen), Jose Luis Palomino getting a late consolation for the home side.
In Bordeaux, Zinedine Zidane did the ceremonial kick-off honours in the new stadium before Diego Rolan (who scored the last goal at the old one) secured the win against Montpellier with a brace, the visitors getting one back late on through Djamel Bakar shortly after he came on for Lucas Barrios. And in Rennes, Lyon finished the season with a win through a late goal from Clinton N’Jie.
In the race for third, St Etienne were the outsiders given the standings, but put in an enjoyable performance against Guingamp featuring a brace for Max-Alain Gradel (with crawling-lion celebration both times) against a penalty for Claudio Beauvue; both of which seemed fitting for players who may have played their last games for their respective clubs. Meanwhile Monaco, in the box-seat, were away at Lorient – Yannick Ferreira Carrasco put them ahead on 20 minutes, after which very little went Monaco’s way attack-wise, with two goals disallowed for offside, Benjamin Lecomte saving a penalty, and Yann Jouffre getting away with an arm-assisted goal-line clearance, but their defence held firm, and they confirmed another run at the Champions League next season.
Finally – and it really was, with a significant delay in the second half – Marseille won 3-0 in a typically feisty encounter with Bastia. Dimitri Payet opened the scoring after 15 minutes, someone threw a flare at Jean-Louis Leca in the Bastia goal, Andre-Pierre Gignac and Ryad Boudebouz had a row, Alexander Djiku wrong-footed his own keeper for an OG for the second, and they barely managed to kick off the second half before the game was stopped for ten minutes or so as various missiles were tidied up from the pitch and the CRS got into position. Gignac got a standing ovation when taken off for Michy Batshuayi, as did the retiring Djibril Cisse when brought on for Gael Danic for Bastia; however, it was Lucas Ocampos on for Florian Thauvin who was the scoring sub this time. Blocked in and unable to pass, he went on a great run through a crowd right at the end to score the final – 947th – goal of the 2014/15 season.
Player of the week, for his double against Guingamp is Max Gradel – what a second half of the season he has enjoyed. He is joined in the final FFW team of the week by:
Goals of the week.
Diego Rolan scored the last two goals at the Stade Chaban Delmas, so in a lovely bit of symmetry, it was nice of him to score twice at the Nouveau Stade Bordeaux. The first goal will go down in Girondins history.
Herve Bazile has been one of SM Caen’s best players this season, he topped it off on Saturday with a delightful chip in their 3-2 win over Evian.
He may not have done much during his loan spell, but Lucas Ocampos put a lovely cherry on the Ligue 1 season with this beautiful solo run and finish. It may be enough to convince OM to sign him this summer.
That’s all for this season, we hope you have enjoyed our coverage. Thanks to everyone that has tweeted, retweeted, commented and read anything we have posted this season. Without the interest, we wouldn’t be here.
Merci à tous!