French Monuments in Trouble While PSG Prepare for Champions League Final

While Paris Saint-Germain are looking forward to the Champions League final and have already wrapped up another Ligue 1 title, two of France’s biggest clubs with proud European track records are facing the end of the season with trepidation.

PSG beat Arsenal in their semi-final on Wednesday to set up a final at the end of May in Munich against Inter Milan, the second in their history after a defeat by Bayern Munich in 2020.

It will be the eighth time that a French side has appeared in the final of Europe’s elite club competition, with Marseille in 1993 still the only team from the country to have won the trophy.

Saint-Etienne were beaten finalists in 1976, when they lost 1-0 to Franz Beckenbauer’s Bayern in Glasgow.

Almost half a century later, they stand on the brink of being relegated to Ligue 2, just a year after coming back up and then being bought by Canadian billionaire Larry Tanenbaum.

With two games of the season remaining they sit in the automatic relegation places, above only a Montpellier side who are already down.