With Paris Saint Germain winning last season’s title, teams are in the process of beefing up their squad ahead of the new 2024/25 season.
Having ended their sponsorship with Uber Eats, the French football top tier will be known as Ligue 1 McDonald’s for sponsorship reasons. It will be the 87th season of the Ligue 1 and it will begin on 16 August 2024 and conclude on 22 May 2025.
Round 16 Review
The Ligue One returned this weekend without PSG and Monaco, as the duo were engaged in the final of the Trophee des Champions, which the former won.
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Away from the top, the fight at the lower end of Marseille took advantage of the duo’s absence by closing the gap with PSG with the likes of Lyon and Lille also being in action. Here is a review of Ligue One weekend games.
Marseille hit Le Havre to close the gap on PSG
Marseille closed the gap on leaders Paris Saint-Germain to seven points at the top of Ligue 1 after crushing strugglers Le Havre 5-1 at the Velodrome on Sunday.
Valentin Rongier, Bilal Nadir, Neal Maupay, Elye Wahi, and Ulisses Garcia scored the goals for Roberto De Zerbi’s team, who also moved three points clear of third-placed Monaco with the victory. Marseille have won five and drawn one of their last six outings in all competitions, and have scored nine goals in two matches either side of the fortnight-long winter break.
10-man Lens beaten by Toulouse
A second-half penalty was enough to see Toulouse continue where they left off in 2024, with a 1-0 success over 10-man Lens securing their sixth win in their last eight in all competitions.
Referee Hakim Ben El Hadj Salem changed the flow of proceedings with a damaging dismissal for Lens in the second half. He initially booked half-time sub David Pereira da Costa for a rake on the calf of Djibril Sidibe, but went to the VAR screen and upgraded his call to a red card.
Predictably, the momentum turned against Sang et Or, as Toulouse looked to grasp what was now a very real opportunity to get their first away head-to-head win since March 2011. Ten minutes later, the video assistant would rule in the favour of Les Violets again after Malang Sarr’s clumsy barge in the back of Aboukhlal brought about a penalty. The Moroccan international dusted himself down and rolled it coolly into the bottom corner, despite the best attempts of the sold-out home crowd to put him off.
Nantes holds Lille to boost chance in relegation battle
Matthis Abline’s late penalty helped Nantes end their three-match losing streak against LOSC Lille as Les Canaris came back from a goal down to hold Les Dogues to a 1-1 draw in Ligue 1.
New signing Anthony Lopes was in the Nantes goal. He joined after playing nearly 500 games for Lyon. Lopes was beaten in the 41st minute when defender Gabriel Gudmundsson volleyed in the rebound after winger Remy Cabella’s curler came back off the crossbar.
Promising French forward Matthis Abline equalized for 15th-placed Nantes with a penalty in the 70th.
Round 16 Results
- Nice 3-2 Rennes
- St-Etienne 3-1 Reims
- Lille 1-1 Nantes
- Lyon 1-0 Montpellier
- Strasbourg 3-1 Auxerre
- Angers 2-0 Brest
- Lens 0-1 Toulouse
- Marseille 5-1 Le Havre
Table
Top Scorers
The Golden Boot Race hasn’t changed that much this week but Lille’s Jonathan David is giving everyone a run for their money.
To find the full list, CLICK HERE
New Entrants
As usual, a total of 18 teams will be participating in the league with familiar faces Auxerre, Angers (who both return to the top flight after one year’s absence), and Saint-Étienne (who return to the top flight after two year’s absence) being the new teams in the top flight. They take the places of Metz, Lorient and Clermont Foot (relegated after one, four and three years in the top flight, respectively) were relegated to 2024–25 Ligue 2.
Managerial Changes
The coaching world is always like a revolving door and so far, the Ligue One team has seen a few changes in the dugout.
Reims’ Samba Diawara has been replaced by Luka Elsner after the former ended his role as the caretaker manager of the team. The biggest talk of the league has been the arrival off Roberto De Zerbi formely with Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion at Marseille. Nice has raided rivals Lens for Frank Haise who comes in to replace Francesco Farioli. Lens has moved on swiftly by appointing Begian Will Still as their new man in charge.
Lille dumped Paulo Fonseca for Bruno Genesio with Le Havre, after escaping relegation by a skin of their teeth, parting ways with Luka Elsner and bringing in Didier Digard who started work officially on 1st July 2024.
Europe Competition Participants
By winning the title last season, PSG will be playing in the UEFA Champions League where they will be joined by Monaco and Brest. Lille will have to go through the Qualifiers in the Champions League. Nice and Lyon will be participating in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League.
New Season Fixtures
In the fixtures released by LFP in June 2024, Paris Saint-Germain will start their title defence in Le Havre on the weekend of 17-18 August. A week later, Montpellier will come to the Parc des Princes for the first home game of the season.
De Zebri will have a feeling of The Classiques come on 27 October in Marseille (Matchday 9) and 16 March in Paris (Matchday 26). Paris will host Lyon on 15 December in their last match before the winter break. They’ll restart in Monaco on 5 January 2025 for Matchday 16.
The capital club will host Le Havre and then Nice on consecutive Matchdays (30 & 31) before going to Strasbourg and Montpellier for Matchdays 32 and 33 respectively. The season will close with Ligue 2 champions AJ Auxerre coming to the capital on the weekend of 17-18 May 2025.
Check the Full Fixture Roster Here
Relegation play-offs
The 2024–25 season will conclude with a relegation play-off between the 16th-placed Ligue 1 team and the winner of the semi-final of the Ligue 2 play-off on a two-legged confrontation. The dates (which are yet to be confirmed) will be in May 2025.
For Daily Predictions Click Here!
The article was last updated on Monday 6th January 2025
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