Ligue 1 ranked as best-performing league in the Champions League

Ligue 1 has been ranked by football stats guru Opta as the best-performing league in the Champions League. All four French clubs involved in Europe’s premier club competition – PSG, AS Monaco, Brest and Lille – have qualified for the latter stages. Only England’s Premier League has as many clubs qualified for, at least, the play-off rounds of the Champions League with Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa.

But contrary to the English clubs, Ligue 1 sides have all concluded the Champions League opening stage in the first half of the standings. Opta reports that “France are the only country to see all of their clubs involved in the UEFA Champions League this season finish in the top half of the league phase table.” Despite a tough calendar with games against Liverpool, Juventus, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, Lille have directly qualified for the RO16, where they will face one of Sporting CP, Brugge, Atalanta BC or Borussia Dortmund, courtesy of their 7th-place finish.

Thanks to their convincing 4-1 away win to Stuttgart, PSG have climbed to 15th in the Champions League. Les Parisiens are certain to play a Ligue 1 team in the play-off round as they’ll face either the 17th-placed team – Monaco – or the 18th-placed one, Brest.

GFFN | Bastien Cheval