Things are heating up nicely in the race for promotion from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1. With one team having already sealed their place in France’s elite for the 2014-2015 season, several others are trying their best to win the opportunity to test themselves at a higher level.
That team which has already been promoted is FC Metz. They have been atop the league table since the twelfth round of games and confirmed their place at France’s top table with a 3-0 win at Auxerre last week. Their promotion is all the more impressive given the fact that Metz were only promoted into Ligue 2 twelve months ago and join the likes of SC Bastia, Evian-Thonon Gaillard and Arles-Avignon in achieving the double promotion from the Championnat National to Ligue 1 in consecutive seasons.
Metz’s success has been based upon the likes of Diafra Sakho, Gaeten Bussman and Yeni Ngbakato. Sakho has found the net nineteen times thus far this season making him the league’s second highest goal-scorer as things stand. Ngbakoto has been almost as impressive, cutting in from the flanks to score twelve times so far. Bussman has been part of the division’s meanest defence, only conceding 27 goals. All three of these players were formed at the club and are aiming to join in the long history of successful graduates from the Metz school.
While Metz’s promotion is a fait accompli there are a number of other sides whose futures are up in the air. Ten points back from Metz and in second place is RC Lens. A side that could, in all honesty, already have promotion sewn up but for their rather stymying habit of drawing games. Thirteen of their 34 games have seen them take one point rather than the full three. Many of these draws have come at home, where Lens would be expected to win rather than draw. Given their large and passionate fan-base, they continue to draw very large crowds: more than 40,000 people were in attendance when Nancy came to town in week 33.
In goal for Lens for the majority of this season has been French Under-20 World Cup winner Alphonse Areola who has been gaining some valuable minutes on the field. He is on-loan from PSG and Lens would no doubt like to keep him next season for a potential mutually beneficial season in Ligue 1. Leading the line has been Yoann Touzghar who has chipped in with 12 goals for les Sang-et-Or. Former Strasbourg, PSG and VfB Stuttgart man Daniel Ljuboja has been turning back the years for Lens too with eight goals and five assists.
Now where the promotion race waters become muddied is due to a relatively unique situation involving Caen. On the 14 March Caen were due to welcome Nimes to the Stade Michel-D’Ornano. However, Nimes were forced to land at Beauvais airport, some 200 km from Caen, due to thick fog. Thus the Nimes side were unable to dispute the match and the three points were subsequently awarded to Caen. Nimes eventually appealed to the French National Committee for Sport who are due to give a decision on Monday 5th May.
Where this complicates matters is that now Caen have nominally a game in hand over the other sides in the promotion race. What this means is Caen could be awarded three further points which would give them a clear and distinct advantage over their rivals in the hunt for promotion. They sit currently on the podium in third with a two point advantage over Nancy in fourth.
Nancy will be hoping that Caen are made to play the fixture with Nimes and the side from the south of France pull off an unexpected victory. They will then cross their fingers and hope that Caen slip up elsewhere, whilst they win their remaining four games. What may come to cost Nancy was their form at the start of the season; they just did not put together a decent enough run of results. Perhaps some sort of re-entry issues: in recent years the sides relegated into Ligue 2 have not usually bounced straight back up.
This brought about a change in manager with club legend Pablo Correa returning in October. They were as low as 15th in the table and since then things have improved steadily. Yet they still have a propensity to drop stupid points, such as losing at home to CA Bastia. Whether it may just be a case of too little too late for ASNL, only time will tell. They will also have a say in matters at the other end of the table, playing Istres, Laval and Auxerre in three of the final four games.
Below them come Chamois Niortais. Probably the least likely promotion candidate at the start of the season, they are three points off a place in the top three. They have been the fairytale story of 2014 as they have taken the most points of any team in the division since the league started up again in January. Their top-scorer Emiliano Sala will return to parent club Bordeaux after a prolific season, netting sixteen times in the league.
In sixth place are Angers who will no doubt be very disappointed to find themselves in such a position given the fact they were on the podium for 28 of the first 30 weeks of the season. Their spring slump has come at the worst possible time for their promotion bid. April was not a good month for the Angevins: they won one out of four league games and were beaten twice. Crucially, one of their conquerors was Caen, compounding matters for Angers. They also lost a Coupe de France semi-final to Rennes and thus their French Cup exploits may have taken their toll on Stéphane Moulin’s side.
A common theme has developed this season in Ligue 2: that of timing your run to perfection. Even Metz, who have been excellent for most of the season, went through a bad run after the resumption; yet they had enough points in the bank to ride out the storm. Lens are edging closer with every passing week. Caen’s form has coincided with Angers’ dip and they probably have the easiest run in of fixtures. As things stand one would tip Caen to seal the deal but given Ligue 2’s unpredictable nature, only a fool would claim to be certain.
Remaining Fixtures
SCO Angers: Lens (A), Nimes (H), Nancy (A), Istres (H)
SM Caen: CA Bastia (H), Brest (A), Tours (H), Dijon (A) *(Potentially Nimes TBC)
AS Nancy: Istres (H), Laval (A), Angers (H), Auxerre (A)
Niort: Auxerre (H), Creteil (A), CA Bastia (H), Troyes (A)
RC Lens: Angers (H), Istres (A), Brest (H), CA Bastia (A)