2024-09-16 16:37:49
Having qualified in extremis for the Champions League, Losc travels to Lisbon on Tuesday evening to face Sporting Portugal, after two defeats in a row in the championship. A match that will mark the launch of the new formula of the premier European competition which this season is banking on the multiplication of big games.
Published on: 16/09/2024 – 18:37
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The words of the president of Losc resonated in the press room. Olivier Létang has not digested the defeat (1-0) conceded by Lille against Saint-Étienne, Friday September 13, for the fourth day of Ligue 1. A second defeat in a row for the northern club which comes at the worst time: Lille begins its Champions League campaign on Tuesday evening (9 p.m.) on the pitch of Sporting Portugal, in Lisbon.
The Lille club has obtained a complicated draw with the receptions of Real Madrid and Juventus, and trips to Liverpool and Madrid to face the other club of the Spanish capital, Antoine Griezmann’s Atlético.
“I don’t care about the Champions League,” reacted LOSC president Olivier Létang on Friday. “What interests me are matches that we have to win. If some people have their minds set on the Champions League, we won’t play it. Our daily bread is the championship and if we want to play in European competitions, we have to perform well in the championship. If we are in the Champions League, it’s because we performed well in the championship. It is impossible to perform well by delivering such performances with such attitudes.”
A goal from Mathieu Cafaro in the 6th minute at the end of a move initiated by Georgian Zurko Davitashvili was enough to make the Stéphanois happy, while Lille stagnates in eighth place in the standings. And the northern club will face a Lisbon team in great form, which has just won five of the first five days of the Portuguese championship.
In this team, one player stands out: Swedish striker Viktor Gyökeres, irresistible on the national scene. The 26-year-old has already scored eight goals in five matches. Opposite, Lille is still without several key players, including midfielder Hakon Haraldsson, injured for several months and so valuable in the offensive creation of his team.
A new suspense format
The new Champions League project has something to make players and spectators salivate. Designed to kill the rival “Super League” project in the bud, it begins this week with three evenings from Tuesday to Thursday, with the entry into the competition of the four French clubs and clashes galore such as Monaco-Barcelona or AC Milan-Liverpool.
Now united in a single league of 36, the clubs of the European elite will battle to grab one of the first eight places directly qualifying, or failing that a ticket for the play-offs by placing themselves from 9th to 24th place.
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The table of the knockout rounds, starting from the 8th finals, comes from the final positions of this “league phase”. Suspense is therefore guaranteed at all levels, until the last day.
But each club has its own personalized program of eight matches against eight different opponents: two in each pot, one away, one at home. A sporting logic that does not have unanimous support among observers, as will probably not be the reorchestration of the popular anthem of the competition.
Tantalizing oppositions
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin humorously took a jibe at Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a presentation clip in August when the big Swede was about to say the name “Super League”.
Because the barely veiled aim of this new format of the premier club competition is to cut the grass from under the feet of the promoters of a competition limited to the biggest European clubs.
Just for this first day, exceptionally scheduled over three evenings to popularize the new formula, the matches are mouth-watering: AC Milan – Liverpool on Tuesday, Manchester City – Inter Milan on Wednesday, Atlético Madrid – Leipzig and Monaco – FC Barcelona on Thursday (9:00 p.m. for all four).
But the gourmet will also be able to choose to follow Kylian Mbappé’s Real Madrid against Stuttgart (Tuesday 9:00 p.m.), Juventus of former Parisian Thiago Motta, now coach, against PSV Eindhoven (Tuesday 6:45 p.m.) or even the impressive Bayer Leverkusen of Xabi Alonso away to Feyenoord Rotterdam (Thursday 6:45 p.m.).
French clubs in the deep end
Four Ligue 1 clubs will be taking to the star track with destinies that could be very different. PSG are aiming for the top 8 but have inherited one of the most difficult draws. On Wednesday at the Parc des Princes (9:00 p.m.), they will be able to gauge themselves against a team that is new to this level, Girona, who took on water against FC Barcelona (4-1) on Sunday in the championship.
The Catalan giant, led by its nugget Lamine Yamal, will challenge Monaco on Thursday (9:00 p.m.) at Louis-II, a tough first match for the team coached by Adi Hütter. Brest, a surprising 3rd in Ligue 1 last season, begins with the match that seems the most affordable for them in this European campaign, the reception of Sturm Graz on Thursday (9:00 p.m.).
With AFP
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