LIGUE 1. The final classification of the Ligue 1 2021-2022 season crowned a PSG without euphoria. Bordeaux, Metz and Saint-Etienne have sunk, Auxerre will be back next season…
The 2021-2022 Ligue 1 season ended definitively on Sunday May 29, 2022, with the final play-off match between AS Saint-Etienne and AJ Auxerre. And it is the Bourguignon club which will join the elite next season, after years of scarcity, while the Greens will go down to Ligue 2, like Bordeaux and Metz, after a disastrous season. The match between Saint-Etienne and Auxerre ended, as on the first leg, with a perfect equality (1-1) before a fatal penalty shootout (5-4), then an invasion of the field with shots smoke bombs and scuffles outside the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium.
Saint-Étienne thus bid farewell to Ligue 1 in the greatest chaos. Players from both teams were quickly evacuated as the pitch was overrun by thousands of angry supporters and pyrotechnics were fired towards the official stand, protected by law enforcement. They also entered the field and threw tear gas to disperse the crowd, while panic movements shook the stands, reports AFP. The clashes continued outside the stadium, requiring the use of tear gas and a water-throwing device, said the Loire prefecture, adding that the unrest had ceased at 11:15 p.m. According to the prefecture, two Auxerre players were slightly injured in the scuffles, there are 14 minor injuries among the police and 17 among the supporters, “including three who were taken to hospital for checks”. The Geoffroy-Guichard stadium is again at risk of serious sanctions even though it is on probation because it is a repeat offender of this type of incident.
What is the classification of Ligue 1 2021-2022?
The 2021-2022 Ligue 1 season will have been marked by several similar excesses in several stadiums across the country and this sad epilogue, despite the joy of the Auxerrois, echoes an equally disastrous Champions League final at the Stade de France on Saturday evening. On a sporting level this time, it is PSG which has regained its place as leader of the championship, after Lille’s victory last season. With a 15-point lead, the Parisians, carried by a very impressive Kylian Mbappé, will not have shone, however, dryly eliminated from the Champions League in the round of 16 and several times put in difficulty on the grounds of Ligue 1. Olympique de Marseille, in a suspenseful battle with AS Monaco, finished in extremis in second place and qualified for the Champions League. The ASM, which will have believed until the end in the place of runner-up, therefore ends up in third position.
In the classification of this Ligue 1 2021-2022, Stade Rennais, author of a very good season, finished in fourth place, with the same number of points as Nice, but a much higher goal difference. OGC Nice, which lost a point after the excesses at the Allianz Riviera last August against OM, will have to settle for the Europa League Conference next season. Strasbourg, also the author of a historic season, let its European ticket slip away and ended its great season in sixth place, ahead of Lens then Lyon, eighth after a very mixed season.
League 1 2021 standings
In the ranking of Ligue 1 scorers, Kylian Mbappé shows that he will therefore have flown over the French championship, with impressive statistics. With 28 goals, he is ahead of Wissam Ben Yedder (As Monaco – 25 goals), Martin Terrier (Stade Rennais – 21 goals) and Moussa Dembele (Olympique Lyonnais – 21 goals) tied for third place.
It’s not just the goalscorers who count in Ligue 1. Those who provide assists to their teammates are also in the spotlight. Find above the ranking of the best passers in the French Ligue 1 championship, which still crowns a certain Kylian Mbappe (17 assists), ahead of Lionel Messi (PSG – 14 assists) and Benjamin Bourigeaud (Stade Rennais – 13 assists).
For this 2021-2022 Ligue 1 season, it is AmazonPrime which had obtained 80% of the TV rights. The new broadcaster covered 8 matches per day: the Friday evening match (9 p.m.), the Saturday afternoon match (5 p.m.), the Sunday multiplex (3 p.m.), the Sunday evening match (8:45 p.m.) and the Sunday noon meeting (1 p.m.). Amazon has also created a special channel: Pass Ligue 1. Canal + which broadcast the two other matches of each day: the Saturday evening match (9 p.m.) and the Sunday match at 5 p.m. The system should change very little for the 2022-2023 season, which will resume its rights on the weekend of August 6 and 7, 2022 and will end on June 4, 2023. Note: from May 27 to July 26, subscribers to the Prime Video’s Ligue 1 pass will not have to pay for their subscription to Amazon’s football offer.