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Published: Friday May 29, 2009 MYT 3:32:00 PM

French football title race decided in Saturday's final game

PARIS: The French title race between Bordeaux and Marseille is down to the final game and could be decided by Caen striker Steve Savidan, whose team needs to beat the leader Bordeaux on Saturday to ensure it stays in the top flight.

Savidan, who almost joined Marseille in the January transfer window, has come into form at just the wrong time for Bordeaux, which only needs to avoid defeat at Caen on Saturday to win its first title since 1999.

Ten straight league wins have taken Bordeaux to 77 points from 37 rounds, three more than Marseille.

But if Bordeaux loses and Marseille beats Rennes at home, then Marseille will win its first title since 1992 on goal difference.

"There will be stress for both teams. Bordeaux has shown signs of tiredness recently, which gives me hope," Marseille coach Eric Gerets said.

Gerets was referring to Bordeaux's tense, scrappy 1-0 home win over Monaco last weekend, where Bordeaux twice went close to conceding a late goal but were let off the hook by Monaco's poor finishing.

That's unlikely to be the case if Savidan gets similar chances to keep Caen in the first division.

Caen is in 17th place with 37 points and level with 18th-place Saint-Etienne, which has a worse goal difference than Caen but will overtake the Normandy side if it beats Valenciennes at home and Caen fails to beat Bordeaux.

Savidan is Caen's top scor er with 14 league goals - more than any of Bordeaux or Marseille's strikers - and has scored three times in the last two games.

This week Savidan bragged about grabbing more goals, both to deny Bordeaux the title and also keep his team in the top flight.

Savidan still remembers the efforts Gerets made to sign him, and wants to thank him for that show of faith.

"The only thing really great about what (Savidan) said is that he has given us some advance warning," Blanc said.

Blanc was boosted by the news Thursday that playmaker Yoann Gourcuff has joined from AC Milan on a four-year contract.

"I am very happy to continue the adventure I've started with Bordeaux," the 22-year-old Gourcuff said after Bordeaux took up the option of buying him for euro15 million ($20.4 million).

History is also lining up against Bordeaux - which has never won at Caen's Stade Malherbe and lost seven of its nine games there since 1988 - including a crushing 5-0 defeat in November 2007 where two Bordeaux players were sent off.

That loss is stuck in the mind of Bordeaux defender Franck Jurietti, who is just as enraged now as he was then.

"In the last 15 minutes, they all thought they were (Diego) Maradona. I would like to point out the lack of respect shown by the Caen team," Jurietti said after that game.

"Every time they got the ball they tried to put it through our legs or flick it over our heads. They took us for idiots."

Jurietti referred to that match again in the French press this week, and he also pledged to keep Savidan quiet after his comments about helping Marseille win the championship riled Bordeaux's players.

Perhaps sensing that nerves are frail over in Bordeaux, Gerets has urged his players to stay relaxed.

"If they're used to going to the restaurant twice a week then they should carry on doing so," Gerets said.

"That doesn't mean going out to the disco every night, but they should not change their habits."

One person Gerets does not expect to feel the pressure is Bordeaux's coach Laurent Blanc - the former France defender who won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship with Les Bleus.

"He has been through too many things as a player and as a coach," Gerets said.

Whether Bordeaux's players can hold their nerve may decide if the team wins the title again on the final day - just like 10 years ago when Pascal Feindouno's last-minute goal sealed Bordeaux's title at the expense of Marseille.

Down at the bottom, Nantes is in 19th place and needs a miracle to stay up on goal difference.

Just ahead of Saint-Etienne and Caen are Le Mans and Sochaux with 39 points.

They are almost safe but one of the two could yet go down if they lose and Caen and Saint-Etienne both win.

Sochaux plays at Grenoble, and Le Mans is at Lorient. Nantes hosts Auxerre, and last-place Le Havre is already relegated ahead of its trip to Nice.

In Saturday's other games, it is Paris Saint-Germain vs. Monaco; Toulouse vs. Lyon; and Lille vs. Nancy.

Both PSG and Toulouse are vying for a top-five finish and a place in next season's Europa League. - AP


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