Lille, French rugby, Atlético, Leclerc… Our sports weekend tops and flops

TOPS

Lille in paradise
They did it ! Thanks to a 2-1 victory in Angers on Sunday, Lille are champions of France for the fourth time in their history, the first since 2011. Strong. Especially when it is the nose and the beard of PSG … And this even if the players of the capital gave the stick to be beaten by losing eight times in 2020-21, including five at the Parc des Princes. “We are not a small champion, my players have had a great championship, promises Christophe Galtier. 83 points is the club’s absolute record. We weren’t always very handsome but we played on our qualities, our heart, our generosity. I will remember that this season. ” After 2012 and 2017, this is the third time since the arrival of the Qataris in 2011 that PSG have been beaten in Ligue 1.

» READ ALSO – Galtier: “We are not a small champion”
» READ ALSO – Champion of France, Lille goes to the end of the dream

French rugby reigns over Europe
As for the Champions Cup, there was no suspense: we knew that a French club would win at the end of a final which pitted the neophyte from La Rochelle to the usual Toulouse. And it was Toulouse who got the better of La Rochelle (22-17), pocketing in the process a fifth coronation in the most beautiful of European cups, a record. “We realize the heritage in which we are and we are only perpetuating the tradition,” said Antoine Dupont. On Friday, however, in the Challenge Cup final, Montpellier faced the English Leicester. And it is the Héraultais who had the last word, a success by the smallest of the margins (18-17) which allows the France of rugby to make the double for the second time, the first since 1997. All, in the lair of English rugby at Twickenham. Cock-a-doodle Doo.

» READ ALSO – Stade Toulousain: excellence perpetuated with a golden generation
» READ ALSO – La Rochelle: an infuriating defeat but which (still) makes people grow

Verstappen and Red Bull hit hard
Hard to dream of better. Max Verstappen won the Grand Prix, his first success in Monaco. The Dutchman grabbed the lead in the drivers’ world championship with four points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and the Austrian brand took power among the manufacturers with one unit ahead of Mercedes. It’s called a perfect weekend. We can even add to this the fourth place of Sergio Perez, he who started ninth. Red Bull hit hard in the Principality on Sunday.

» READ ALSO – Victory, championship … The (really) princely weekend of Verstappen and Red Bull

Atlético crowned king of Spain
Real or Barça? Barça or Real? This time, neither of the two giants of Spanish football will finish champion. It is the usual third thief, the cursed child, Atlético, who was crowned King of Spain on Saturday, at the end of the 38th and final day of La Liga. The 11th Colchoneros title, the first since 2014. Thrown like an old sock last summer by FC Barcelona, ​​Luis Suarez is getting his revenge. “We’re coming out of a very complicated year, like the rest of the world, a difficult year for all the teams. And to finish champion after such a difficult year, that will be a milestone. It means a lot about this club, it means that it is made of another material, ”rejoices Diego Simeone, coach of the Matelassiers since 2012. Hats off.

Robert Lewandowski efface Gerd Müller
“I feel like I’m in a science fiction movie. I remain speechless”. It’s not just him. With his 41st goal in the Bundesliga vintage 2020-21, Saturday against Augsburg, on the 34th and final day, Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski broke a record that seemed untouchable. That of the number of goals in a season in the German league, held so far by a former Bavarian house, Gerd Müller (40). At 33, the Polish gunner is at the peak of his form and his art.

FLOPS

Cursed Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc will have gone through all the emotions this weekend, at his home in Monaco. Author of the best time in qualifying on Saturday, his eighth career pole, the Monegasque Ferrari driver was to start from pole position on Sunday at the Grand Prix. And we know that in the Principality more than elsewhere, the position on the grid is decisive … Except that Leclerc, victim of a track excursion in qualifying, finally had to retire even before the start. This is because of a problem with the left driveshaft. “It’s difficult, the mechanics have done absolutely everything to believe in this victory, said Charles Leclerc, on Canal+. There is a link with the accident. ” Decidedly, the 23-year-old driver is cursed on his land, he who has always had to give up on the Rock since 2017, in Formula 1 and 2, after technical problems or clashes. “Once again, not to finish … And there I did not even start, it is not easy”, he railed. In the end, it was Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who started from pole, who won and took the lead in the drivers’ standings, overtaking Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), seventh on Sunday.

» READ ALSO –

The Werder in purgatory
The German second division will look great next season. After Hamburg, six-time German champion and former winner of the Champions League and the Cup, the elite antechamber welcomes two big names: Werder and Schalke 04 are relegated at the end of the exercise 2020-21. The Gelsenkirchen club was already doomed before the last day on Saturday. The one in Bremen, not yet. Four-time winner of the Bundesliga and winner of the defunct C2 in 1992 against Monaco, Werder lost to Borussia Mönchengladbach (2-4) and went down for the first time in 41 years. At the time, the former club of Johan Micoud had recovered the following year. Bis repetita?

Lyon misses the mark
Three points. That’s all the Lyonnais needed to get back to the Champions League. And yet, OL will once again watch the queen of the European Cups from afar next season. Beaten by Nice (2-3) on Sunday at Groupama Stadium on the last day, Les Gones failed to take advantage of AS Monaco’s draw in Lens (0-0). They will have to settle for a place in the Europa League in 2021-22.

Still work for Manaudou before the Olympics
Gold at the Olympic Games for Florent Manaudou? Perhaps. But Laure’s brother is not there yet. Second time in the heats and then in the semi-finals on Saturday, over 50m, at the European Championships in Budapest, Manaudou (30) did not even stand on the podium, finishing only fifth in the final in 21”81. “The disappointment is above all that I swim slower than yesterday (Saturday). It’s a stage, there are still a lot of races. The year of Rio (2016), I swim 21 sec 7/10 at the European Championships. It doesn’t mean anything, these are one-day races, we’ll see at the end. I will give all I can give, ”he said. The Games will run from July 23 to August 8. Manaudou won gold in 2012 and silver in 2016.

French tennis at a standstill
So certainly Richard Gasquet reached the quarter-finals of the Lyon tournament (won by Stefanos Tsitsipas) and even declared himself “proud of (his) level”. But this weekend, like those who preceded it on clay, confirmed concerns about French tennis before the start of the French Open with the absence of any representative in the final (singles). Roland-Garros is already next Sunday, and in view of the results of the French players, it will take a miracle to see more on the track in the second week. Everything will depend on the draw scheduled for Thursday.