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"Montpellier champions of France? If I was Marseille, Paris, Lyon, Lille or Rennes, I'd stab myself in the arse with a sausage! What an embarrassment it would be for them" - Louis Nicollin, Montpellier president, sometime midseason last year Welcome to the thread for the 2012-2013 Ligue 1 season, France's top league. Probable reasons why you're here: You're a You're You're the newest PSG plastic. I had intended putting in a nice effort OP for this thread, but it turns out that I'm really lazy and nobody will give a poo poo about this thread throughout this season anyways, it'll be lucky to have the same number of pages that a Premier League matchday thread has in the first 5 minutes of a Liverpool match. Thus, I hope you enjoy my summary of Wikipedia pages about Ligue 1 and it's participants. I was even going to include images of the club crests but the image hoster I normally use to snag Wikipedia pngs is busted tonight so gently caress it. Here are the basics: -20 teams, the bottom 3 teams are relegated to Ligue 2, replaced by the top 3 finishers in Ligue 2 -There are 2 domestic cup competitions: ---The Coupe de la Ligue is open to professional teams, which roughly comprises Ligue 1, Ligue 2, and a few teams in 3rd division Championnat National. The winner gains automatic entry to the UEFA Europa League. The final is held in the Stade de France, in Paris. Last year's title was won by Marseille. ---The Coupe de France is open to all professional and amateur teams in France, or any of France's territories. Last year over 7000 clubs participated. The tournament final is also is held in the Stade de France, and the winner also gains entry to the UEFA Europa League. Last year's winner was Lyon, in a final against amateur 3rd division side US Quevilly. -The top 2 league finishers gain entry to the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, with the 3rd place finisher going into the Champions League qualifier playoffs. -Fourth place finish in the league gains entry to the UEFA Europa League Final 2011-2012 table  Champion: Montpellier UEFA Champions League qualifiers: Paris Saint-Germain, Lille UEFA Europa League qualifiers: Lyon (Coupe de France champion), Marseille (Couple de la Ligue champion), Bordeaux (Lyon gained entry via Coupe de France victory, and Bordeaux were next highest). Here are the participants for 2012-2013, in alphabetical order because I'm lazy and that's the order that Wikipedia has them in. AC Ajaccio Home ground: Stade Francios Coty, 12,000 capacity Manager: Alain Orsoni 2011-2012 finish: 16th place Derbies: SC Bastia (Corisca Derby) SC Bastia Home Ground: Stade Armand Cesar, 10,500 capacity Manager: Frederic Hantz 2011-2012 finish: 1st place in Ligue 2 (promoted to Ligue 1 this season) Derbies: AC Ajaccio (Corsica Derby) FC Girondins de Bordeaux Home Ground: Stade Chaban Delmas, 34,500 capacity Manager: Francis Gillot 2011-2012 finish: 5th place (qualified for Europa League) Derbies: Toulouse (Garonne Derby) Stade Brest 29 Home Ground: Stade Francis-Le Ble, 15,100 capacity Manager: Landry Chauvin 2011-2012 finish: 15th place Derbies: Rennes (Breton Derby) Evian Thonon Gaillard F.C. Home Ground: Parc des Sports, 15,600 capacity Manager: Pablo Correa 2011-2012 finish: 9th Derbies: no known rivals, as nobody hates bottled water Lille OSC Home Ground: Grand Stade Lille Metropole, 50,200 capacity Manager: Rudi Garcia 2011-2012 finish: 3rd (Champions League playoff qualification) Derbies: Lens (Northern Derby), but Lens is in Ligue 2 so it doesn't matter FC Lorient Home Ground: Stade du Moustoir, 18,500 capacity Manager: Christian Gourcuff 2011-2012 finish: 17th Derbies: no known enemies Olympique Lyonnais Home Ground: Stade de Gerland, 40,500 capacity Manager: Remi Garde 2011-2012 finish: 4th (Europa League qualification) Derbies: Saint Etienne (Rhone Derby), also rivalries with Marseille and Lille Olympique de Marseille Home Ground: Stade Velodrome, 60,000 capacity Manager Elie Baup 2011-2012 finish: 10th (qualified for Europa League via league cup) Derbies: PSG (Classico de France), Saint Etienne (2 clubs with most Ligue 1 titles), Lyon (recent success for both), Nice (Cote d'Azur Derby), Monaco when they're back up next year Montpellier HSC Home Ground: Stade de la Mosson, 32,900 capacity Manager: Rene Girard 2011-2012 finish: 1st (Champions League group stage qualification) Derbies: Nobody in Ligue 1 this year, but PSG will be up for them AS Nancy Lorraine Home Ground: Stade Marcel Picot, 20,100 capacity Manager: Jean Fernandez 2011-2012 finish: 11th Derbies: Metz, who are not in Ligue 1. Besides, nobody would pick on a Nancy. OGC Nice Home Ground: Stade Municipal du Ray, 18,400 capacity Manager: Claude Puel 2011-2012 finish: 13th Derbies: Marseille (Cote d'Azur Derby), Monaco Paris Saint-Germain F.C. Home Ground: Parc des Princes, 48,712 capacity Manager: Carlo Ancelotti 2011-2012 finish: 2nd (Champions League group stage qualification) Derbies: Marseille (Classico de France) Stade de Reims Home Ground: Stade Auguste Delaune, 21,700 capacity Manager: Hubert Fournier 2011-2012 finish: 2nd in Ligue 2 (promoted to Ligue 1) Derbies: dunno. They were a huge club a long time ago, but have gone into administration/liquidation, and haven't been in Ligue 1 since the 70s. Stade Rennais F.C. Home Ground: Route de Lorient, 29,300 capacity Manager: Frederic Antonetti 2011-2012 finish: 6th Derbies: Brest (Breton Derby) AS Saint-Etienne Home Ground: Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, 35,600 capacity Manager: Christophe Galtier 2011-2012 finish: 7th Derbies: Lyon (Rhone Derby), Marseille (2 clubs with the most Ligue 1 titles) FC Sochaux-Montbeliard Home Ground: Stade Auguste Bonal, 20,000 Manager: Eric Hely 2011-2012 finish: 14th Derbies: nobody in the big leagues Toulouse FC Home Ground: Stadium Municipal, 35,500 capacity Manager: Alain Casanova 2011-2012 finish: 8th Derbies: Bordeaux (Garonne Derby) Troyes AC Home Ground: Stade de l'Aube, 21,700 capacity Manager: Jean-Marc Furlan 2011-2012 finish: 3rd in Ligue 2 (promoted to Ligue 1) Derbies: Auxerre (N77 Derby), but they got the boot to Ligue 2 last year Valenciennes FC Home Ground: Stade du Hainaut Manager: Daniel Sanchez 2011-2012 finish: 12th Derbies: beats me My sources of information for Ligue 1: http://www.ligue1.com/ - Official English language site of the league. Pretty good overall package of news, stats, match previews, etc. http://frenchfootballweekly.com/ - A good blog, they do weekly podcasts and have nice features on individual players in addition to general league coverage. They've been more "quality over quantity" in terms of output in the past, but it seems like they've ramped up their writing staff. http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/ligue1/ - Not particularly good, but they're one of the few major English language sports outlets that even lets you filter articles by this league. A lot of PSG transfer rumors, mostly. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/wr...tleton/archive/ - Ben Lyttleton is a Sports Illustrated writer that does a fair amount of writing on French football. http://www.youtube.com/user/Ligue1official/videos - Official Ligue 1 Youtube page. High quality video game recaps and goals. What you need to know for the start of this year: PSG now have all of the players to go along with all of the money and they'll soon have all of the trophies. If they don't win the league by at least 20 points then Carlo and Leonardo should retire from the game in disgrace. Montpellier have kept their entire team intact with the exception of Giroud, and they have an intriguing replacement for him in Herrera. They'll have a brutal CL draw and will take a beating there, but should still be competitive in the league. Lille are a drastically different team than the title winner from 2 seasons ago in terms of personnel, but the addition of Martin should serve as a good replacement for everybody's favorite Chelsea player. Marseille and Lyon are both in stages of financial difficulty, they'd both be fortunate to finish in the top 3. Gourcuff has looked a bit frisky since the last couple weeks of last season, and could be an interesting story line to follow. There's a bunch of other clubs in the league that probably have players that your club wants to purchase for like a million Euro and they're probably pretty good for that price and you'll be the next Newcastle and be really happy with life. Monaco have a Russian sugar daddy and should stomp Ligue 2 this year. The league kicks off tonight with Montpellier vs Toulouse. Week 1 fixtures: 
trem_two fucked around with this message at Aug 14, 2012 around 02:13 |
| # ? Aug 10, 2012 03:52 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 14:16 |
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Fantastic OP. Gonna be an odd season not hearing Hazard every few seconds, but I am very excited to see what Les Dogues will do!
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 04:34 |
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edinbro rugby
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Free stream of the Montpellier Toulouse FC for americans is on the new home Ligue 1 in the states Beinsport.
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 18:50 |
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Yesss, Ray Hudson doing Ligue 1. E: And we already have a contender for the worst studs-to-head kick of the season trem_two fucked around with this message at Aug 10, 2012 around 19:38 |
| # ? Aug 10, 2012 19:14 |
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Oh yeah I just found out while browsing the onscreen tv guide that Ligue 1 is also on Univison Deportes so if you want your french soccer/football in spanish theres your place.
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 20:14 |
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Congratulations to Paris Saint Germaine
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 20:30 |
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3 red cards, multiple horror challenges, both goals against the run of play, missed sitters in the final minute, nobody won...Ligue 1 is back baby. Nice game for Utaka, the rest of the Montpellier squad looked flat. Toulouse looked like Toulouse, and were lucky that there was such lovely marking on that counter that led to their goal. Yanga-Mbiwa isn't doing himself any favors in getting Milan to meet his asking price this month.
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| # ? Aug 10, 2012 20:45 |
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Verratti is in the starting squad for PSG against Lorient. No Nene, seems like his days left with PSG might be numbered. Rennes-Lyon and Saint Etienne-Lille should be good match ups today, but it looks like the only decent stream I can find is for the PSG game.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 18:42 |
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Gahahahahaha "And there's your start to a new era." Brilliant. edit: For content, OG by PSG. Lorient up 1-0. 
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:04 |
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Lol what a counter by Lorient.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:05 |
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Lol, yesss.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:06 |
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darn, so close so 2-0.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:22 |
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Jesus, PSG should see if Silva can make it to Paris by halftime. Goal for Gourcuff, I think he's back.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:24 |
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0-2 would have been so hilarious, just fractionally offside. Let's enjoy this window for schadenfreude towards PSG for the limited time it'll be opened.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:26 |
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Ibra embarrassing himself. Verrati definitely playing the Pirlo role Ancelotti likes.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:28 |
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Lorient is just running rampant through their midfield, some def. problems here
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:28 |
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ASSE - Lille is a great match so far and Lille looks very good. ASSE have only had 1 or two shots on goal from pretty far away. Lille with something like 61% possesion and tons of chances. Marvin looking really really good.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:30 |
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oilcheck my rear end posted:Lorient is just running rampant through their midfield, some def. problems here Monnaie Pacquet and Romao are actually helping out the defense unlike Menez/Lavezzi.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:35 |
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PSG aren't playing with any fluency at all.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:36 |
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Manga and Mareque have been boss so far to be fair.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:36 |
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Wow, quite a save there. That floater into the box from Verrati was a definite Pirlo move.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:36 |
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Hahaha you twits
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:48 |
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Bahaha, zero deux motherfuckers
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:48 |
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Haha, sad. Didn't Lorient nearly get relegated last year?
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:48 |
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Boro legend scores lol edit: Ancelotti needs a destroyer in the middle, BLAISE!
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:48 |
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Funny stuff this, absolutely ridiculous defending
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:49 |
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Just shockingly bad defending.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:49 |
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HAHAHAH how poo poo do you have to be to let Aliadiere score
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:49 |
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 this owns.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 19:50 |
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If Alaidiere is dancing through your defense like a magician, you might not win the Champions League idk
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:00 |
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Still time to buy a new defense.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:05 |
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Amazing.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:09 |
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lavezzi. 
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:09 |
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Ibra is starting to give a poo poo, this might get tasty.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:13 |
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Ligue 1: The league where nobody wins at home. e: IBRAAAAAAAA
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:22 |
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This game 
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:23 |
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this match owns so so much.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:24 |
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This is more like it
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:26 |
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The last 10 minutes have been amazing, so many missed opportunities for PSG. E: lol, and now they'll get a point
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:46 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 14:16 |
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What a game. Since Manga got injured, Lorient defense has been falling apart.
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| # ? Aug 11, 2012 20:49 |
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