The very last decisions in France’s top flight were made late Sunday evening. There was great joy in Lille—despite their own defeat. Meanwhile, Nice, with Dante, must take a detour.
In the title race, favorite Paris Saint-Germain had sealed the deal a week ago, clinching the Ligue 1 title with a convincing 2-0 win at second-place Lens—their fifth in a row, following a surprisingly late confirmation.
On this late Sunday evening—with all nine matches played simultaneously—the other major questions of the season were finally settled. The Champions League, the remaining European spots, and the relegation battle: these questions, some of which were still truly nail-biting, were all answered.
Lyon fails to capitalize on Lille’s slip-up
Starting with the third spot for direct qualification to the 2026/27 Champions League. This went to Lille OSC at the end of Matchday 34, even though the northern French side didn’t do much to earn it—they lost 0-2 to relegation-threatened Auxerre, who secured their Ligue 1 survival with this result.
However, because Olympique Lyon also failed to capitalize on this opportunity and suffered a crushing 0-4 defeat against runners-up RC Lens, Lille remained in third place for the Champions League. And OL will have to go through the qualifying rounds this summer.
For traditional club Olympique Marseille, despite a final-round victory in their match against Stade Rennes, they could only secure fifth place in the Europa League. At least: After a season filled with boos from their own fans and general chaos—including the recent fire extinguisher incident involving former Dortmund player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang—OM still managed to leapfrog Rennes with a 3-1 win to close out the season. This secured their spot in the Europa League.
Stade Rennes, led by top scorer Esteban Lepaul (21 goals in 34 appearances), had still been hoping for a Champions League spot, but in the end had to settle for the consolation prize—the Conference League qualifying round.
Before returning to Munich: Dante has two big games left
Just behind the European spots were AS Monaco and Conference League semifinalist Racing Strasbourg. The two clubs at least delivered the highest-scoring match of the season—after trailing 1-4, Strasbourg still won 5-4.
At the bottom of the table, as already mentioned, Auxerre and Le Havre (2-0 at FC Lorient) secured their survival. The team left out in the cold: OGC Nice. The club led by Dante—the former Gladbach, Munich, and Wolfsburg player who, at 42, was still part of the starting lineup and is set to step down at the end of the season to become coach of FC Bayern’s reserve team—managed only a 0-0 draw against promoted side and bottom-of-the-table Metz. As a result, Nice must now take the detour through the relegation playoffs—where they will face AS St. Etienne.
