One game for all the marbles

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This article was published 21/05/2021 (1911 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

And so, it comes down to this. One matchday, the championships of France and Spain on the line.

Both divisions have relegation and European placements to be decided as well, but as the club campaign reaches its final weekend it’ll be hard to look away from the drama atop the two tables.

Ligue 1, after all, wasn’t even supposed to have a title race.

Champions in seven of the last eight seasons, Paris Saint-Germain were simply expected to do what they do, ho-hum, and finish well above everyone else while pursuing an elusive European Cup. Well, it didn’t work out that way.

While they could still win Le Championnat on Sunday, they don’t control their fate. Lille, in first place, have what should be a straightforward appointment at Angers. PSG need Les Dogues to lose or draw at Stade Raymond-Kopa while they, themselves, look to get a result at Brest.

Les Parisiens will almost certainly hold up their end of the bargain. Wednesday’s Coupe de France triumph over Monaco should have gone some distance in taking the pressure off — they won’t finish the season without a trophy — and although Neymar will miss out through injury, Kylian Mbappe will attempt to cap a personally sensational season in which he’s so far scored 41 goals.

A lot has been made of that fact PSG, Champions League finalists in 2020, started the schedule poorly as the previous, pandemic-interrupted campaign pushed up against the current one. But the fact is Lille were also slow out of the gate, winning just five of their first 10 matches before catching fire in late November and losing only one of their next 19.

Unbeaten in seven ahead of Sunday’s trip to Maine-et-Loire — a run that started with a 1-0 victory at PSG — Lille have only to win and they’ll be champions of France, a scenario that still seems sort of unreal.

Last weekend, in a sign that the pressure might be getting to them, they struggled to grind out a scoreless draw at home to Saint-Etienne, and the French papers have been speculating that manager Christophe Galtier could perhaps overthink things and adjust his line-up to face Angers.

It would be a mistake.

Consistency and balance have been Lille’s strengths as they’ve pursued this unlikely title. Veteran Jose Fonte and youngster Sven Botman have combined to form the best defensive partnership in the country, while Benjamin Andre and Boubakary Soumare have a unique understanding in the centre of the park. Up front, the old-young template is replicated in Burak Yilmaz and Canadian striker Jonathan David, who have so far combined for 29 goals.

If anything, Galtier has worked a mysterious alchemy with this group, and he should let it become the gold that outshines the rest of Ligue 1.

Like Lille, Atletico Madrid go into the weekend knowing a win is all they require to seal La Liga. It wouldn’t be quite as unlikely an accomplishment as that of their French counterparts, but the Real Madrid-Barcelona duopoly has been interrupted only once in the last 16 years (by Atletico in 2014) and in modern Spanish football a champion from outside the Clasico pair is something of a novelty.

Should they go on and win an 11th title Saturday at Valladolid, Atletico can credit their success to the first half of the schedule.

While Real Madrid were slow out of the gate, requiring 11 matches to record six wins, and as Barcelona seemed to be in crisis mode after that 8-2 humbling by Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Los Colchoneros were smashing everything in sight. With only one defeat by February, it seemed as though they’d have the trophy in their hands sometime in April.

Perhaps it was complacency, but a surprise 2-0 loss at home to Levante brought Atletico back down to earth, and in the three months since they haven’t won more than two matches in succession. A 0-0 draw at Barcelona earlier this month opened the door to a three-way title race in the season’s final weeks, but in their previous two outings they’ve managed to stay ahead of their chasers by edging both Real Sociedad and Osasuna by 2-1 scorelines.

Against Osasuna, they only pulled level through Lodi’s equalizer in the 82nd minute, and it wasn’t until Luiz Suarez’s 88th-minute goal that they knew they’d control their own destiny Saturday at Estadio Jose Zorilla.

Valladolid, however, can escape relegation with a win, and if the encounter produces so much as a draw Real Madrid will be ready to pounce.

Spain’s form team in 2021, Los Blancos haven’t lost since January — also to Levante — and earned their shot at a final-day title win by beating Athletic Bilbao 1-0 at San Mames on Sunday. Nacho was the surprise difference-maker in the victory, and if Madrid are to get the result they need Saturday against Europa League finalists Villarreal, they may just require another unlikely hero.

Karim Benzema, whose 29 goals helped him earn a France recall, has cooled off in recent weeks. Meanwhile, fellow attackers Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo have been anything but reliable in front of goal, and Eden Hazard is persona non grata after his meek display against Chelsea in the Champions League.

Then there are the opponents.

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El Submarino Amarillo, anticipating their clash with Manchester United, can rise into a Europa League berth with a win and a bit of help, and they’re coming off an impressive 4-0 demolition of fourth-place Sevilla.

La Liga is Atletico’s to lose; Ligue 1 is Lille’s.

Neither side will have expected to be in this position back in the fall. If offered the chance at a one-win, claim-the-championship scenario, they’d no doubt have jumped at it.

But it’s exactly where they find themselves on the final day. One game, for all the marbles.

jerradpeters@gmail.com Twitter @JerradPeters