Ligue 1 ranked as most competitive league in Europe

Last weekend’s Ligue 1 action broke a goal-scoring record which has stood since the 1976-1977 season following several high scoring encounters which have tightened both the race for Europe and the battle to avoid relegation to Ligue 2 BKT. Gameweek 31 saw Stade Brestois incredibly qualify for Europe with a 5-4 win over Stade Rennais, whilst Olympique Lyonnais beat AS Monaco 3-2 at the Groupama Stadium. Even newly-crowned Champions Paris Saint-Germain were involved in a competitive high-scoring clash (3-3) against Le Havre at the Parc des Princes on Saturday evening.

It follows a week in which Ligue 1 was ranked by The Athletic as the most competitive league in Europe’s top five divisions (+ Liga Portugal and Eredivisie). The study focused on looking at squad values throughout the seven leagues, with Ligue 1 being judged to have the most similar valued squads throughout its league with a coefficient of 36.5% for Inequality of squad market value.

Europe and relegation, everyone but PSG has something to fight for 

The fight for European football has been one of the most hotly-contested in recent years, with relegation tightening further and further until the final day. Apart from the Champions-elect in Paris Saint-Germain, all of Ligue 1’s 17 other teams still have something to play for at the end of the season. The most extreme case in point is Montpellier, who sit in 12th place and are almost as likely to play in the Europa Conference League as they are in Ligue 2. As we previously highlighted, the points median to stay up this season will be incredibly high, especially even if bottom side Clermont still have a chance to claw their way back to safety after winning convincingly against Reims (4-1).

>>What will it take for Ligue 1 survival this season?