Bordeaux capped off a successful season by winning their first French league championship in 10 (1999) years by beating Caen away 1-0 in the last game of the season on May 30th.

They finished the season off in style and on a high as it was the 11th straight win for manager Laurent Blanc’s men. And it’s a good thing they won all 11, as they finished with 80 points, just three ahead of second-place Marseille, who beat Rennes 4-0 in manager Eric Gerets last game with the club. They also went unbeaten at home throughout the season and captured the League Cup as well.

Bordeaux, and Marseille automatically qualify for next season’s Champion League, while Olympique Lyon made it to the qualifying spot by coming in third place.

This is Bordeaux’s sixth league championship overall and they have a habit of leaving things to the last minute as their last title was also wrapped up on the final day of the season a decade ago. They also won the league in 1950, ’84, ’85, and ’87.

Yoann Gouffran scored the winner against his former team as he headed in a cross from Benoit Tremoulinas in the 49th minute. Caen came close to tying things up with about 10 minutes to go in the game when Sambou Yatabare broke in on net. But he could only get off a weak shot and Bordeaux keeper Ulirch Rame had no problem making the save.

In the other French Ligue 1 games, it was: Grenoble 0-1 Sochaux; Lille 3-2 Nancy; Lorient 1-1 Le Mans; Nantes 2-1 Auxerre; Nice 0-0 Le Havre; Paris Saint-Germain 0-0 Monaco; Saint-Etienne 4-0 Valenciennes; and Toulouse 0-0 Lyon.

Toulouse ended up in fourth place and Lille took fifth, which means they both qualify for the Europa League next season, which is the new version of the UEFA Cup.

At the bottom end of the table, Caen, Nantes, and Le Havre were all sent packing into the second division for next season, while Lens, Montpellier, and Boulogne-sur-Mer were all promoted to the first division. Andre-Pierre Gignac ended up as the French league’s top scorer with 24 goals.

Over in Spain, Diego Forlan banged in his league-leading 32nd goal of the season to propel Atletico Madrid into fourth place and next year’s Champions League qualifying round with a 3-0 home win over Almeria. They only needed a draw to lock up the space over fifth-place Villarreal, who won 3-2 at Real Mallorca.



Champions Barcelona, along with second-place Real Madrid and third-place Sevilla had already secured the three automatic Champions League spots. Barcelona ended their treble-winning season with a 1-1 draw at Deportivo Coruna., where Samuel Eto’o scored his 30th goal of the season.

Fifth-place Villarreal, sixth-place Valencia, and King’s Cup runner up Athletic Bilbao made it into next season’s Europa League. David Villa netted his 27th and 28th goals of the season in Valencia’s 2-0 home win over Athletic Bilbao. Deportivo ended up in seventh, four points behind Valencia.

At the bottom of the league, Real Betis, Recreativo Huelva and Numancia are relegated to the second division.