Lille ready to knock PSG off perch in tense French finale

A tight French title race culminates on Sunday with table toppers Lille a win away from dethroning Neymar and Kylian Mbappe’s Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) as champions.

Christophe Galtier’s outfit have no major stars but are unbeaten away since November and travel to mid-table Angers, a team who have lost five of their last six league games.

On 80 points, Lille hold a slender one-point lead over PSG who won the French Cup in midweek.

Galtier has been a tower of strength at the head of three-time former champions Lille, and is confident his charges will complete the job.

“Our campaign has been built on away performances, we just have to stick to our guns,” he said.

Turkish veteran striker Burak Yilmaz, 35, is Lille’s top scorer with 15 goals, compared to the league-leading 26 of Mbappe, but there is a palpable sense of unity at the club.

Lille, bidding to win the title for the first time in a decade, have a budget which is smaller than that of Lyon, Marseille and Monaco as well as PSG.

Third-place Monaco is an outside contender as they trail Lille by three points. It needs both its rivals to lose and win by a large enough margin to overtake Lille on goal difference.

Lille could have made things easier but drew last weekend to give PSG a glimmer of hope. But as Lille’s players trudged down the tunnel after a 0-0 home draw with Saint-Etienne last weekend, veteran Yilmaz issued a strong rallying cry to his teammates.

“We will be champions, you are dogs of the fight,” he shouted in English. “We will be champions next week, you will see!”

They were aptly chosen words from Yilmaz, considering lille’s nickname is “Les Dogues” (The Mastiffs).

PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino insisted his side will hold their nerve at Brest who are desperate to avoid being dragged into the relegation play-off spot.

“We have to believe it’s possible, do our job by winning our match at Brest and see if Lille run into trouble,” said Pochettino, whose charges will take the title with a win if Lille draw or lose.

If they are successful, PSG will be crowned French champions for a record-equalling 10th time.

On what could be an enthralling last day, Niko Kovac’s Monaco, on 77 points, will hope to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2018.

Monaco were beaten 2-0 midweek by PSG in the French Cup final but former Bayern coach Kovac said his side had already moved on.

“If we win at Lens on Sunday we will have transformed our season into something wonderful,” said Kovac.

The south coast side will however be looking anxiously over their shoulders at Lyon who can still snatch third place.

Dutch striker Memphis Depay, in his last game before he becomes a free agent, vowed he’d help Lyon get three points at home to Nice.

“The only thing that counts right now is qualifying Lyon for the Champions League,” said Depay, who arrived from Manchester United and is tipped to join Barcelona.

“I want to leave here a mature player who assumed his responsibilities.”

At the bottom, Nimes and Dijon are already relegated, but there are six sides fighting to avoid a relegation play-off.

Brest are fighting to stay up - and must better lille’s result to avoid losing the title for the first time since Monaco won it in 2017. Brest is only one point ahead of Nantes in 18th and the promotion-relegation playoff spot.

Nantes, which is led by former PSG coach Antoine Kombouare, has made a superb late push to stay up against the odds.

Nantes is aiming for a fifth straight win when it hosts a Montpellier side which has nothing to play for, aside from giving coach Michel Der Zakarian a good sendoff in his last game in charge.

So Brest can ill afford to drop points against PSG, which is chasing a record-equaling 10th French crown to join Saint-Etienne and Marseille.

If Monaco lose then Lyon could overtake the principality side and sneak into third for the Champions League qualifying slot.

Agencies