History in France! The upcoming edition of the Champions League will, for the first time ever, feature four Ligue 1 sides – Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Brest, and Lille (which booked their UCL tickets through the qualifiers).Hence, it would not be wrong to call tonight’s derby between Lille and PSG (21.45) “a Champions League derby.” After all, the Saints boss, Luis Enrique, said something similar at the pre-match press conference.Lille’s dogs await PSG tonight 🐶🔥 pic.twitter.com/vmNRrpxcFw— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) September 1, 2024 “We know Lille well, they were one of the teams that played the best football last season, and they’re going to play in the Champions League. So we’re expecting a Champions League level game, and it’s always interesting to play games like that, especially away from home. It’s definitely one of the best fixtures in the league, not just in terms of the teams but also their line-ups. Lille are doing a lot of things very well, continuing what they did last season. I like what they offer. We’ll be playing at their place too, which is one of the toughest away games we’ll play,” stated the Spaniard.Greenwood nets a brace as Marseille brush Toulouse asidePSG lost Kylian Mbappe in this transfer window but also brought some youngsters who could make an impact and – why not – replace the Frenchman. The Saints splashed out 110 million euros on the arrivals of Joao Neves from Benfica and Desire Doue from Rennais. According to Enrique, the transfer window was successful.”We’ve had a very good window. We improved with one player per line. We knew it would be a difficult window, like for all teams. We already have a very good team because we strengthened last year and now we want to move forward with this project,” the 54-year-old strategist said.Both teams opened the new Ligue 1 season with convincing victories: Lille beat Reims and Angers 2-0, while the Saints crushed Le Havre 4-1 and thrashed Montpellier 6-0. Based on those results, the squad strength and the history, Enrique’s crew has to be considered favourites. However, the last club that managed to deprive Paris Saint-Germain of the Ligue 1 title was Lille back in 2021. Hence, anything is possible.LIGUE 1 – MATCHDAY 3FridayOlympique Lyon – Strasbourg 4-3 (1-1)/Tolisso 45+1, Maitland-Niles 61, Orban 63, 72 – Nanasi 3, Santos 48, Emegha 58/SaturdayBrest – Saint Etienne 4-0 (2-0)/Camara 10, Del Castillo 32 pen, Ajorque 77, Lala 84 pen/Montpellier – Nantes 1-3 (1-2)/Adams 30 – Abline 24, Simon 45+6 pen, Mohamed 85/Toulouse – Olympique Marseille 1-3 (0-2)/Babicka 90 – Greenwood 16, 17, Cresswell 52 og/Sunday16:00: (1.90) Monaco (3.60) Lens (4.00)18:00: (3.05) Reims (3.50) Rennes (2.45)18:00: (2.80) Le Havre (3.15) Auxerre (2.65)18:00: (4.30) Angers (3.45) Nice (2.00)21:45: (4.10) Lille (3.50) PSG (1.90)***odds are subject to change***
