Ligue 1 Title is in Play. For Once.

By: Laurie | March 17th, 2009

Ligue 1 fans, we got us a horse race this year. This season is unlike several of the past few, where the only suspense was, “How many points will Lyon win by this year?” Instead, in the 2008-09 season we have not just one or two, but several serious contenders. Currently only four points separate the top six clubs.

Current Ligue 1 standings:

Lyon — 53 pts.
Marseille — 52
PSG — 52
Bordeaux — 50
Toulouse — 49
Lille — 49

PSG has looked solid this year, after spending much of last season on the verge of relegation. They actually had the opportunity to go top of the league this weekend after Lyon’s shock loss to Auxerre, but a 10-man PSG couldn’t hold off a surging Marseille, and the game ended with a 3-1 PSG loss.

But don’t count PSG out. Or Marseille. Or Bordeaux. Or even dark horses like Toulouse or Lille or Rennes (47 points.) With every single team playing inconsistently this season, this feels like the kind of year where anything could happen.

Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Lyon hold off their challengers this year, again, and take their eighth straight league title. They’ve been hammered by injuries and schedule congestion up to this point in the season, but they just exited Champions League last week after losing 6-3 on aggregate to an on-fire Barcelona. Add in domestic Cup losses in both Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue, and we’re probably going to see a club that has the time to regain its health and is able to focus on taking the title. Again.

(PSG and Marseille are both in the final 16 in the UEFA Cup and still having to divide their energies, Bordeaux is in the Coupe de la Ligue final, and Lille and Toulouse are still in the Coupe de France.)

But at the moment, a hot streak by any of these sides could put the le Championnat back into play again. After years of predictability, that’s kind of fun for us neutrals to see.

Also, thought you might enjoy seeing what security looked like around Parc des Princes for the PSG-OM match.