Ligue 1 Review | A weekend of upsets shows anything is possible
It took just 18 seconds. A lively Lorient had harried a lethargic-looking Lille for the opening nine minutes at the tight Stade du Moustoir before Laurent Abergel, one of Ligue 1’s best out-of-possession players, mugged nervy new Lille signing Ignacio Miramón. Failing to receive a pass from goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier, Miramón could only watch as Abergel swept home the opener. Almost from kick-off, another mistake let midfielder Julien Ponceau in for a second.
Despite becoming last season’s surprise package and challenging at the top until the World Cup break, Lorient endured a far trickier second half of the year, eventually trudging home in tenth. Shorn of powerful striker Terem Moffi at Christmas and graceful creator Enzo Le Fée in the off-season, the new 18-team format looked to pose issues for Les Merlus. Avoiding relegation would have been dynamic young coach Régis Le Bris’ only target for the new campaign, having overperformed in his first season in charge.
Meanwhile, Lille’s fifth-place finish last term was, according to the stats, an underperformance. LOSC incredibly topped Understat’s expected points table (based on thousands of match simulations using expected goals data). Individual errors have been debilitating long before Miramón’s summer arrival and likely cost Paulo Fonseca’s charges a Champions League spot at least.
Despite those opposing trajectories, it was Lorient who were rampant, scoring twice more on the break to win 4-1. That was just one of several upsets in France this weekend that proved the perceived established order of a clear top eight of big, well-resourced clubs (PSG, Lens, Marseille, Lyon, Monaco, Nice, Lille, and Rennes) is far from concrete. Ligue 1’s middle class has been improving
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