Brest secured the final automatic berth in next season’s Champions League with a 3-0 win at Toulouse on Sunday that sealed a third-place finish for the surprise package of the French league on a dramatic final day.
Heading into the last round of matches, Lille and Brest were level on points behind already-crowned champion Paris Saint-Germain and AS Monaco, with Lille ahead only by a difference of two goals.
Lille looked set for a third place finish but blew a 2-1 lead against Nice in added time to draw 2-2, dropping into fourth place.
After the expansion of Europe’s top club competition from next season, the French league will have three automatic spots in the tournament rather than two. Brest, whose attack-minded approach developed by coach Eric Roy has been a pleasure for fans to watch this season, will play in Europe for the first time. Its previous best league finish was eighth.
The club stadium holds 15,000 compared to PSG’s capacity of nearly 49,000 at Parc des Princes, while PSG’s yearly budget of 700 million euros ($763 million) dwarfs Brest’s 48 million euros ($52 million) — among the smallest in the league.
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The small club from the Brittany region’s trophy cabinet is also small — the club won the second division in 1981.
Lille captain Benjamin Andre thought he had scored the winner in the 73rd minute with a powerful and precise header from a corner but the hosts could not hold onto their lead as Jordan Lotomba found the net with a header between the legs of Lille goalkeeper Vito Mannone.
Roy has done a remarkable rebuilding job at Brest. The team was in the relegation zone when he was hired midway through last season and finished 14th. Roy had been 12 years without a coaching job, too.
Mahdi Camara, Jordan Amavi and Kenny Lala scored Brest’s goals.
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