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Lyon and Bordeaux in race for Euro-lucre

SoccerNews in Ligue 1 8 May 2010

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With Marseille winning their first French championship in 18 years there is a retro whiff in the air ahead of this weekend’s action which will see the teams below them scramble for places in the cash cow of the Champions League.

Didier Deschamps followed former France teammate Laurent Blanc in masterminding the title win, 12 months after his 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 temamate performed the feat with Bordeaux – and 17 years after Deschamps lifted the European Cup with Marseille as a player.

But as Marseille rejoin the ranks of the winners so there are losers and the higher they rise the heavier they usually fall.

With the rise to prominence of Lille and Auxerre – both previous Champions League participants and currently in the other qualifying slots – both Bordeaux and ex-serial champions Lyon face the prospect of missing out.

Lyon won seven French titles in a row before being dethroned by Blanc’s men.

But their supine showing against Bayern Munich in what was a belated first European semi-final will not be coach Claude Puel’s biggest nightmare of the campaign if his side lose to Valenciennes on Saturday as Lyon would lose ground on what is already an unacceptable fourth spot.

A win would potentially take ‘Les Gones’ into second as they currently trail Lille and Auxerre by two points – and they also, crucially, have a game in hand at home to Monaco.

“If we want to achieve anything we must show character. We have three matches to go but we have to believe in ourselves,” said Swedish star Kim Kallstrom.

As for Bordeaux, whom Lyon beat in the Champions League quarters after first putting out Real Madrid to suggest they might not ultimately flatter to deceive at the highest level, Wednesday’s draw at Nice ahead of Saturday’s home encounter with Sochaux means Blanc’s men could miss out on Europe altogether.

Amid reports Blanc has been offered the chance to replace France coach Raymond Domenech after the World Cup (though he is under contract until 2011) Bordeaux’s hierarchy are clearly angry at the way their season has imploded since losing the League Cup final to Marseille in March.

Mid-season, they had been nine points clear of the field.

“I didn’t feel the players invested much in the match,” club chairman Jean-Louis Triaud remarked after the Nice draw which left the Girondins sixth and six points off a Champions League qualifying round finish with two games left.

Triaud said the performance “looked like a friendly” showing and lacked urgency when millions of Euros are at stake.

Playmaker Yoann Gourcuff is still out with hamstring trouble and Blanc recognises that “Bordeaux without certain players are a lot less of a force to be reckoned with.”

Blanc has already discounted the Champions League after a “mediocre” season – but says “we owe it to ourselves to participate in the Europa League.”

Lille will not afford Marseille any time to rest on their title laurels, meanwhile, as the two meet at the northern club who have already tasted the Champions League on three occasions.

The hosts will need to go all out as Auxerre, champions for the only time in 1996, will expect three points at home to lowly Lens.

“Qualifying for the Champions League would be the cherry on the cake,” as Auxerre coach Jean Fernandez readily admits.

Fixtures:

Saturday 1900 GMT)

Lille v Marseille, Monaco v Nancy, Auxerre v Lens, Bordeaux v Sochaux, Montpellier v Lorient, St Etienne v Toulouse, Valenciennes v Lyon, Le Mans v Paris SG, Rennes v Nice, Grenoble v Boulogne

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