"You can't go out and buy a style of play, a culture and an identity"- PSG, Ligue 1 and French football 2011-2012

Montpellier hold their nerve to beat Rennes 2-0. Lille won earlier too. Those two play at the weekend in the biggest game left in Europe this season.

The biggest game left in Europe this season is on just now. 0-0 midway through the first half. It's good stuff so far, Montpellier having slightly the better of it but Lille looking up for it too.

Still 0-0 at halftime. Montpellier are faster, stronger and more direct, but a couple of times they've had excellent positions only to mess up with inexplicable final balls. They've missed at least one sitter, but Lille have had a couple of chances too.

Also 0-0 in PSG - Rennes, which is what we want.

Err that's not what I want!

You're in luck, Nene scores 1-0

Montpellier winner in 4th minute of injury time!

It was almost exactly like Torres v Barca, except Giroud squared it. He did so well. Lille were pushing up, they needed a winner themselves to keep their title.

I really enjoyed that, cracking game. Tense as anything - you can't beat high-stakes footy basically.

Montpellier now need a draw away to Auxerre to win the title. If they lose and PSG win at Lorient, PSG will be champions.

Auxerre got relegated tonight so I think Montpellier can pop the champagne tonight

ILF lived up to its name so much today.

really glad for montpellier i have to say. i feel like everyone except psg fans is rooting for montpellier to win it. psg will win the league in the years to come and part of me feels they didn't deserve to finish at the top after kicking out kombouaré (a somewhat legendary psg player) in december even though he had brought psg to 1st spot.

yeah well people always love an underdog.
Anyway, it's true that for most of the season PSG did not impress as a team, mostly snatching points thanks to solo raids from its "star" players (ironic that their best player this season by far, Nene, was a relic of teh old regime).
However, for the last month or so, Ancelotti seems to have made the team gel. Shame about the title this year, but as Jibé said, it's pretty clear that PSG will dominate the league for the years to come. The Pastore-Menez-Nene trio is only finally starting to find their marks, so I'm really looking forward to see them next year (assuming they all stay).

yup montpellier as underdog + the fact that it's paris and with it the old paris/province divide + the qatari money + firing kombouaré makes it hard for lots of ppl to root for them. but they def seem to be gelling - correct me if i'm wrong but right now they've started playing without a true forward (meaning no gameiro/hoarau on the field at the start) with ménez and nene just going wherever they want with pastore right behind them? i'd be curious to see who they get during the summer. especially since there's been the usual amount of crazy talk (for ex, negotiations with real madrid for a kaka+higuain package comes to mind). and yeah, nene is having a great season, joint top scorer with giroud and in the top 5 passers, or something like that? i'd say only hazard is havng a better season than him this year?

this is based on having seen the game against sochaux and from looking at the team sheet before the game yesterday, not from any extensive viewing. i really hope they do well in the champions league next year.

yes, it seems that the team started clicking once Ancelotti made them play w/o a CF with those three mostly playing in free positions. Yes, I'm also very curious to see who they'll buy this summer since I feel they should mainly try to leave the current squad develop as a team. Not sure either Kaka or Higuain would bring that much, although they do need a bigger bench since they do't really have any subs for Pastore/Menez/Nene.

After Chelsea and West Ham yesterday Montpellier really better win this fucking thing. Just sayin'.

I know. Their game is enough about strength & movement that they should be fine, but they came damn close to losing to Evian a couple of weeks back, so.

You've got to love the optimism of the French authorities, scheduling the Ligue 1 climax for this weekend.

haha, yes. And the Coppa Italia Final is tonight as well.

Montpellier are doing enough, 1-1 at halftime (they need a point) while PSG are losing 1-0 at Lorient (they need a win while Montpellier lose).

Meanwhile Lille are 4-1 up against Nancy - it doesn't matter now, but if they and not Montpellier had got the injury-time goal last week it'd be Lille's title right now (that's not as 'if my auntie had balls' as it sounds btw, it could easily have happened).

Oh, and PSG fans threw flares onto the pitch after they'd gone behind, holding up play for five minutes. I don't know what that's about as I didn't see it, but I'm sure the players will be reinforced by that show of support.

Hold up at Auxerre now to clear debris that had been thrown on, I had assumed to allow the two games to get back in sync, but the ref has hauled the players off the field now. This is a bit of a shambles.

I'm assuming this is a coördinated protest by Auxerre ultras about their relegation, some fine extended radio gaga clapping displays going on.

PSG hit the post. There's a goal coming.

PSG do score, this is still up for grabs.

The Montpellier game restarts, now about ten minutes behind. They'll play the last ten minutes either as a celebration or in a frantic Man City need-to-score style.

PSG score and lead 2-1. An Auxerre goal now and it's PSG's title.

Auxerre doing all the attacking, this is terrifying

Anthony Le Tallec close for Auxerre with the sort of piledriver we became so accustomed to at Anfield.

Jeez, a flare right into the Montpellier defence there - this might yet be a win by default.

PSG game needlessly descending into an injury-time brawl.

PSG have won, no idea what's going to happen in the Montpellier game.

Restarting again now in the Montpellier game, about thirteen minutes left. It's 1-1, which'd give Montpellier the title, but a goal for Auxerre and it's PSG's.

This is a desperate way to end though.

Oh, I don't know if they are restarting, some kind of consultations going on right now. There's a riot police cordon a yard from the goal line at one end.

They're clearing the stand at that end now so they can play the last thirteen minutes 1/4 closed doors. Never seen this before.

Yes! Utaka gives Montpellier the lead!

There's now fifteen minutes to go apparently.

wuh my stream just went to an ad.

I lost everything too but firstrow #11 has just come back

Hurrah! Jeez though, what a way to win a title.

CONGRATS MONTPELLIER.

i've watched hardly any ligue 1 this season - have montpellier been good in a way that means everyone's going to buy all of their players over the summer, or is it more like if swansea had won the premier league this year?

They've got maybe two or three excellent players who'll be snapped up - Giroud, Belhanda, Camara maybe. The rest are very competent, strong players and excellent teamwork. I'd say it's probably as if Newcastle had won the EPL this year.

if swansea won the league, all their good players would be bought. but for montpelier i think the biggest stars have been Giroud, Belhanda, and Yanga-Mbiwa, they seem the ones most likely to be bought by a bigger club.
xp

In terms of history, it's probably something akin to Southampton winning the league next year.

Thierry Roland died last night. To most of you that name means absolutely nothing but to any French fotball fan he's extremely famous. He was a football commentator, who'd been commenting for about 50 years, including 13 world cups and 9 euros, countless matches from ligue 1 to European cups, French national team matches etc. His duo with Jean-Michel Larqué as a commentating team was really famous, his laugh even more so (he seriously had one of the weirdest and entertaining laughs i've ever heard). He was also susceptible to a few racist comments at times tbh but still he was somewhat of a lovable old grouch. This guy really was as much a celebrity as most football players.

RIP Thierry Roland.

yeah he was very fun (on the other hand I hate larqué... it was so awful to have to listen to him during the game yesterday !).

i haven't heard larqué comment a game for maybe 2-3 years but general consensus does seem to be that he's getting even more annoying as he ages. is he really that terrible now? and it's true that out of the two roland seemed the nicest&most fun. though ya, capable of some very misplaced statements.