Monaco salvaged their Ligue 1 place despite losing 2-0 at Nice on Friday in the final game of a season (Reuters/File Photo)Monaco salvaged their Ligue 1 place despite losing 2-0 at Nice on Friday in the final game of a season in which they were always in danger of going down, while Caen were relegated. The result left Monaco in 17th place with 36 points, two ahead of Dijon, who will play RC Lens in a promotion/relegation playoff after beating Toulouse 2-1 at home.
Caen will join already-relegated basement side En Avant Guingamp in Ligue 2 next season after a 1-0 home loss to Girondins de Bordeaux left them second from bottom on 33 points. Champions PSG finished the season with a 3-1 defeat at mid-table Stade de Reims.
Monaco started against Nice at the Allianz Riviera with a better goal difference (-17 to -24) than Caen, the only team who could catch them, but fell behind against the run of play.
Monaco’s Benoit Badiashile deflected a Youcef Atal cross into his own net in the 36th minute to give Nice the lead and Mickael Le Bihan made it 2-0 after the break with a penalty.
Coach Leonardo Jardim returned to Monaco in January, after being replaced by Thierry Henry in October, and the Portuguese saved the principality club, who picked up 15 points in seven games between February and mid-March.
With all the Champions League and Europa League qualifying spots having already been decided last weekend, second-placed Lille lost 3-1 at Stade Rennes and Olympique Lyonnais, who are third, grabbed a 3-2 comeback victory at Nimes.
PSG finish season on sour note with Reims defeat
Champions Paris St Germain ended their Ligue 1 season on a sour note when they slumped to a 3-1 defeat at Stade de Reims on Friday as keeper Gianluigi Buffon was far from his best.
Buffon started in place of Alphonse Areola and pulled off a couple of good saves as Reims tried to hit PSG on the break before things went downhill for the Italian veteran.
PSG were punished at the end of a counter-attack in the 36th minute when Abdul Rahman Baba found the back of the net with an angled shot that went between Buffon’s legs.
Mathieu Cafaro doubled Reims’ tally in the 56th minute with a powerful shot from just inside the box that caught Buffon off guard.
Kylian Mbappe, who needed four goals to match Lionel Messi’s league tally of 36 for Barcelona this season, was toothless until he finally came to life and reduced the arrears three minutes later from close range. That was Mbappe’s 33rd goal in Ligue 1 this season, the most by a Frenchman in the top-flight since Philippe Gondet netted 36 times for Nantes in 1966.
Pablo Chavarria, however, put the result beyond doubt when he added a third for Reims in stoppage time. PSG finished on 91 points while Reims ended with 55 points in eighth place.
