Ligue 1: Champions League, European places and the fight for survival... The stakes of the final day

Place your bets! With 90 minutes left in a tantalizing and undecided 34th and final matchday of Ligue 1, nearly half of the elite teams are preparing to play a crucial match for their future at the top or bottom of the table. PSG, French champions for the 13th time, OM (2nd) and Monaco (3rd) already have their Champions League tickets in their pocket, while Montpellier is relegated to Ligue 2.

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As a reminder, the fourth-placed team in Ligue 1 can also hope to qualify for the Champions League, but to do so, they must advance beyond the third qualifying round and then the play-offs. The fifth-placed team advances directly to the Europa League league stage, along with the winner of the Coupe de France, and the sixth-placed team earns a ticket to the Conference League play-offs.

But if PSG wins the Coupe de France final against Reims on May 24, there will be a change in the configuration: nothing changes regarding the C1 but the fifth and sixth places become synonymous with the league phase of the Europa League and it is the seventh place in Ligue 1 McDonald's which benefits from the last strapontin for Europe, with the Conference League play-offs.

There are four teams vying for 4th place. They are Nice (4th), Lille (5th), Strasbourg (6th) and Lyon (7th) even if the chances of the latter team are infinitesimal (three points behind and unfavorable goal-average). Nice, Lille and Strasbourg have the same number of points (57 points), but the Aiglons have a superior goal difference to the Northerners and the Alsatians (4 and 6 goals) and will host Brest (8th). Beaten only twice at home this season, Franck Haise's men have the cards in hand to snatch the precious sesame for the C1.

Lille and Strasbourg will be on the lookout for a poor performance from the Côte d'Azur. Round of 16 in the Champions League this season (eliminated by Dortmund), Lille hosts Stade de Reims, who are still not saved from relegation to Ligue 2. The same situation applies to the surprising Alsatian team, who host Le Havre, who are still threatened by relegation. Beaten by Angers (2-1) after 12 matches without defeat (9 wins and 3 draws), Strasbourg wants to complete its superb season with a place in the Champions League. Finally, Olympique Lyonnais will face Angers, who survived last weekend, at Groupama Stadium.

Four teams will battle it out this Saturday to avoid the 16th play-off spot (against the Ligue 2 playoff winners, Metz or Dunkirk) and the 17th, which means relegation. Reims (14th, 33 points and a very favorable goal average) only needs a point at Lille to officially confirm their survival. The same scenario applies to Nantais (15th, 33 points and a good goal average), who host bottom-place Montpellier, already condemned. A long-distance duel is therefore looming between Le Havre (16th, 31 points) and Saint-Étienne (17th, 30 points) for the play-off spot.

To maintain their position, or even better, Le Havre, who have won four away games in the last three months, must put in a strong performance in Strasbourg, unbeaten in their home ground of La Meinau for 10 Ligue 1 matches (seven wins and three draws). It's complicated. At the same time, Saint-Étienne is playing its last-chance match at Geoffroy-Guichard against Toulouse (12th), who no longer have anything to fear or hope for.

On the brink of relegation after their 3-1 defeat to Monaco two weeks ago, Les Verts regained hope with a 2-0 win at Reims last Saturday. They now need to validate the attempt against TFC to secure a play-off (first leg on Thursday, May 22 and return three days later at the Ligue 1 team) for the third season in a row (relegation to Auxerre in 2023, then promotion against Metz last year).