After suffering a lost against PSG in the French Cup Final, we are now back to the league. We only have 4 remaining games to play and the teams we are facing are PSG, AS Monaco, EA Guingamp and Bordeaux. We are currently sitting at the 2nd position with 84 points, while the leader PSG is holding 93 points. We have a 9 points difference. To be honest, I can’t see us winning the league this season. However, we are still going to try our best as always. Can we win the league? Let’s see!
vs PSG
The first game against PSG is very crucial. Only a win could slow PSG down from winning the league after this match. If we lost the game, PSG would be crowned as the champions of France. This game is just a couple of days after the Cup Final, so most of our players are not in full fitness. However, we put up a pretty good team and we are ready for the battle!
Match Result
Unfortunately, we lost again to PSG and the new Ligue 1 champion for season 2020/21 is going to be PSG. It was an unfortunate 1-0 lost again, but our players played poorly in this game. From the match stats itself, it was an even game for both sides. Our attack was once again the problem in this game as the attackers failed to score against Keylor Navas. The average rating of the whole team was around 6.8 which nobody stood out in the whole game. We played like dead zombie (best description I can come out with) in this match.
The only goal came from Neymar. The Brazilian did an absolutely sensational job and scored a great goal. He received the ball from Bernat, cut in from the left flank, dribble past all my defenders and made it into the penalty box. Neymar then took a shot at the near post and Anthony Lopes only stood still and watched the ball went into the net.
May 2021
Moving on to May 2021, we have 3 more games to play. Home game against AS Monaco, away game against EA Guingamp and the last game is a home game against Bordeaux.
The game against AS Monaco went extremely well. Before the game, I was worried about Wissam Ben Yedder as he was the top scorer in the league at the moment. Monaco was sitting at the 4th position and they had a fairly strong squad. Since we had already lost the league title and qualified for the Champions League next season, I made a gamble by starting some of the young and inexperienced players in this game – Oumar Solet, Aurelien Tchouameni, and Thiago Almada. These young kids delivered great performance and absolutely impressed me. Solet successfully kept a clean sheet and both Tchouameni and Almada provided an assist. Moussa Dembele scored a hattrick, Ricardo Orsolini got himself on the score sheets and made one assist, while the super sub Amine Gouiri scored the 5th goal.
Playing against EA Guingamp was tough. We won 3-1 away with Ricardo Orsolini once again on the scoresheet and Memphis Depay scored a double. However, we lost Moussa Dembele who was competing for the Golden Boots in the league. Ricardo Orsolini was ruled out for 2 months after the game as well. The bright side was having another hot prospect back into the team – Tituan Thomas after suffering a 9 months injury. He started as the attacking midfielder in this match, created one chance and sent out 2 key passes which was pretty impressive. Another great performance from Maxence Caqueret as well, controlling the midfield by making 7 key passes and created 1 chance.
Nevertheless, the last game of the season was fairly disappointing. We lost 1-0 against Bordeaux in a home game. Amine Gouiri replaced Moussa Dembele as the starting striker, but the youngster failed to impress the fans. He was subbed off at 63rd minute after a poor performance. Thiago Almada wasn’t having a great time either on the pitch and was replaced by Houssem Aouar at the 50th minute. Although Lucas Tousart and Maxence Caqueret both controlled the midfielder perfectly, making a total of 10 key passes in 90 minutes. Our attackers did not take the chances and we eventually lost 1-0 against Bordeaux.
League Table
This is how the league table looks like after playing 38 games. PSG won the league with 105 points, breaking the record of highest points in a season. The previous record was 100 points which was achieved by us last season. We finished 2nd in the league with 90 points, 15 points behind the leader. Olympique Marseille finished 3rd and successfully secure their spot in the Champions League next season. Rennes shocked the world at the final day, climbing up to the 4th position, leaving Lille and AS Monaco in 5th and 6th position.
Conclusion
Although PSG wins the league and breaks our record, I am still happy that they fail to achieve the invincibles because of us. However, our performance this season obviously doesn’t reach the target or hit the expectation. As a result, next chapter is going to be a season review on our players. We have to find out what the problem is. Another big question is – do I stay at Lyon? Or do I leave for another challenge? I will see you guys next week, take care!
ABT Football Manager 