2018–19 Ligue 2

The 2018–19 Ligue 2 (referred to as the Domino's Ligue 2 for sponsorship reasons^[2]) season was the 80th season since its establishment.

Ligue 2

Season	2018–19
Champions	Metz
Promoted	Metz Brest
Relegated	Red Star Béziers Gazélec Ajaccio
Matches played	380
Goals scored	834 (2.19 per match)
Top goalscorer	27 (Gaëtan Charbonnier, Brest
Biggest home win	Lens 5–0 Gazélec Ajaccio Round 11, 22 October 2018
Biggest away win	Valenciennes 0–4 Clermont Round 6, 31 August 2018 Red Star 0–4 Orléans Round 12, 26 October 2018 Gazélec Ajaccio 0–4 Auxerre Round 20, 11 January 2019 Sochaux 0–4 Nancy Round 26, 1 March 2019 Red Star 0–4 Clermont Round 29, 15 March 2019 Grenoble 0–4 Orléans Round 31, 5 April 2019
Highest scoring	11 Valenciennes 5-6 Béziers Round 33, 19 April 2019
Longest winning run	8 Troyes
Longest unbeaten run	16 Metz
Longest winless run	17 Niort
Longest losing run	7 Nancy
Highest attendance	33,093 Lens v Le Havre Round 30, 1 April 2019[1]
Lowest attendance	1,198 AC Ajaccio v Troyes Round 1, 27 July 2018[1]
Average attendance	6,835[1]
← 2017–18 2019–20 →

Teams

Team changes

Promoted from 2017–18 Championnat National Red Star Béziers Grenoble Relegated from 2017–18 Ligue 1 Troyes Metz

Promoted to 2018–19 Ligue 1 Reims Nîmes Relegated to 2018–19 Championnat National Bourg-Péronnas Quevilly-Rouen Tours

Stadiums and locations

AC Ajaccio

Auxerre

Béziers

Brest

Châteauroux

Clermont

Gazélec

Grenoble

Le Havre

Lens

Lorient

Metz

Nancy

Niort

Orléans

Paris FC

Red Star

Sochaux

Troyes

Valenciennes

Location of teams in 2018–19 Ligue 2

Club	Location	Venue	Capacity
AC Ajaccio	Ajaccio	Stade François Coty	10,446
Auxerre	Auxerre	Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps	21,379
Béziers	Béziers	Stade de la Méditerranée	18,555
Brest	Brest	Stade Francis-Le Blé	15,097
Châteauroux	Châteauroux	Stade Gaston Petit	17,173
Clermont Foot	Clermont-Ferrand	Stade Gabriel Montpied	11,980
Gazélec Ajaccio	Ajaccio	Stade Ange Casanova	8,000
Grenoble	Grenoble	Stade des Alpes	20,068
Le Havre	Le Havre	Stade Océane	25,178
Lens	Lens	Stade Bollaert-Delelis	37,705
Lorient	Lorient	Stade du Moustoir	18,890
Metz	Metz	Stade Saint-Symphorien	25,636
Nancy	Tomblaine	Stade Marcel Picot	20,087
Niort	Niort	Stade René Gaillard	10,886
Orléans	Orléans	Stade de la Source	7,000
Paris FC	Paris (13th arrondissement)	Stade Charléty	20,000
Red Star	Paris (Saint-Ouen)	Stade Pierre Brisson	10,198
Sochaux	Montbéliard	Stade Auguste Bonal	20,005
Troyes	Troyes	Stade de l'Aube	20,420
Valenciennes	Valenciennes	Stade du Hainaut	25,172

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager1	Captain1	Kit manufacturer1	Main sponsor1
AC Ajaccio	Olivier Pantaloni	Johan Cavalli	Adidas	Auchan Atrium
Auxerre	Cédric Daury	Jordan Adéoti	Macron	Remorques LOUALT
Béziers	Mathieu Chabert	Macedo Novaes	Puma	Angelotti
Brest	Jean-Marc Furlan	Gaëtan Belaud	Nike	Quéguiner (H), Yaourts Malo (A)
Châteauroux	Nicolas Usaï	Yannick M'Bone	Nike	Monin
Clermont	Pascal Gastien	Julien Laporte	Patrick	Crédit Mutuel
Gazélec Ajaccio	Hervé Della Maggiore	TBD	Macron	Carrefour, Casino D'Ajaccio
Grenoble	Philippe Hinschberger	Selim Bengriba	Nike	Carrefour, Sempa, BONTAZ
Le Havre	Oswald Tanchot	Alexandre Bonnet	Joma	Filiassur, SEAFRIGO Group
Lens	Philippe Montanier	Walid Mesloub	Macron	Auchan Retail
Lorient	Mickaël Landreau	Fabien Lemoine	Kappa	B&B Hotels, Jean Floc'h
Metz	Frédéric Antonetti	Renaud Cohade	Nike	Moselle
Nancy	Alain Perrin	Danilson da Cruz	Nike	Sempa
Niort	Pascal Plancque	Andé Dona Ndoh	Erima	Restaurant Le Billon (H), Cheminées Poujoulat (A)
Orléans	Didier Ollé-Nicolle	Karim Ziani	Kappa	CTVL
Paris FC	Mehmed Baždarević	Frédéric Bong	Nike	Vinci
Red Star	Vincent Doukantié	Formose Mendy	Adidas	Vice
Sochaux	Omar Daf	Maxence Prévot	Lotto	Ledus
Troyes	Rui Almeida	Benjamin Nivet	Kappa	Babeau Seguin
Valenciennes	Réginald Ray	Sébastien Roudet	Acerbis	Mutuelle Just

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Sochaux	Peter Zeidler	Signed by FC St. Gallen	14 May 2018[3]	Pre-season	José Manuel Aira	22 May 2018
Metz	Frédéric Hantz	Resigned	20 May 2018		Frédéric Antonetti	24 May 2018[4]
Lens	Éric Sikora	Sacked	18 May 2018		Philippe Montanier	22 May 2018[5]
Troyes	Jean-Louis Garcia	Mutual consent	22 May 2018		Rui Almeida	30 May 2018
Paris FC	Fabien Mercadal	Signed by Caen	8 June 2018[6]		Mehmed Baždarević	15 June 2018[7]
Grenoble	Olivier Guégan	Sacked	22 June 2018		Philippe Hinschberger	22 June 2018
Gazélec Ajaccio	Albert Cartier	Sacked	9 October 2018[8]	12th	Hervé Della Maggiore	15 October 2018[9]
Châteauroux	Jean-Luc Vasseur	Sacked	9 October 2018[8]	16th	Nicolas Usaï	24 October 2018[10]
Nancy	Didier Tholot	Sacked	27 October 2018[11]	20th	Alain Perrin	27 October 2018
Red Star	Régis Brouard	Sacked	29 October 2018[12]	19th	Faruk Hadžibegić	29 October 2018[13]
Sochaux	José Manuel Aira	Sacked	25 November 2018[14]	18th	Omar Daf	25 November 2018[14]
Niort	Patrice Lair	Suspended	17 December 2018[15]	7th	Jean-Philippe Faure (caretaker)	11 December 2018[16]
Niort	Jean-Philippe Faure (caretaker)	End of caretaker role	14 January 2019[17]	8th	Pascal Plancque	14 January 2019[17]
Auxerre	Pablo Correa	Sacked	18 March 2019[18]	14th	Cédric Daury (interim)	18 March 2019[18][19]
Red Star	Faruk Hadžibegić	Mutual consent	24 March 2019[20]	20th	Vincent Doukantié (interim)	24 March 2019[21]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or Relegation
1	Metz (C, P)	38	24	9	5	60	23	+37	81	Promotion to Ligue 1
2	Brest (P)	38	21	11	6	64	35	+29	74
3	Troyes	38	21	8	9	51	28	+23	71	Qualification to promotion play-offs semi-final
4	Paris FC	38	17	14	7	36	22	+14	65	Qualification to promotion play-offs quarter-final
5	Lens	38	18	9	11	49	28	+21	63
6	Lorient	38	17	12	9	51	41	+10	63
7	Le Havre	38	13	15	10	45	40	+5	54
8	Orléans	38	15	7	16	51	53	−2	52
9	Grenoble	38	13	11	14	43	47	−4	50
10	Clermont	38	11	15	12	44	37	+7	48
11	Châteauroux	38	11	15	12	37	42	−5	48
12	Niort	38	11	14	13	34	41	−7	47
13	Valenciennes	38	11	10	17	52	61	−9	43
14	Nancy	38	12	6	20	36	50	−14	42
15	Auxerre	38	10	11	17	34	36	−2	41
16	Sochaux	38	11	8	19	27	43	−16	41
17	Ajaccio	38	9	13	16	29	45	−16	40
18	Gazélec Ajaccio (R)	38	9	12	17	30	54	−24	39	Qualification to relegation play-offs
19	Béziers (R)	38	9	11	18	33	50	−17	38	Relegation to Championnat National
20	Red Star (R)	38	7	9	22	28	58	−30	30

Source: Ligue 2
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Fair play points
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	ACA	GAZ	AUX	BEZ	BRE	CHA	CLE	GRE	HAV	RCL	LOR	MET	NAL	NRT	ORL	PAR	RS	SOC	TRO	VAL
Ajaccio	—	1–2	2–1	2–1	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–2	3–2	0–2	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	2–3	0–1	3–1
Gazélec Ajaccio	1–0	—	0–4	0–1	1–1	1–2	0–3	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–3	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–1	2–1	0–2	2–1	0–0
Auxerre	0–0	2–3	—	2–0	0–2	1–2	1–0	4–0	0–1	1–2	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	3–0	0–2	0–0	1–0	0–2	1–1
Béziers	0–1	0–0	1–0	—	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–3	1–1	0–0	0–1	1–3	3–0	1–1	1–2	0–1	1–3	0–0	0–0	1–1
Brest	2–0	4–1	1–0	3–0	—	5–1	0–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	3–2	0–1	2–1	3–0	3–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	2–5
Châteauroux	2–2	0–1	0–0	2–0	2–2	—	2–2	2–2	1–0	0–0	1–2	1–2	1–0	2–1	1–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–3	1–1
Clermont	0–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–2	0–0	—	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	2–3	2–3	3–2	3–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	2–4	0–1
Grenoble	2–0	1–1	0–0	4–2	1–2	0–0	1–0	—	0–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–4	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–2	4–2
Le Havre	3–1	2–2	1–1	2–3	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–1	—	2–1	2–3	2–2	0–2	0–0	3–1	2–1	1–0	3–2	1–1	4–3
Lens	1–2	5–0	2–0	3–0	2–1	0–1	1–0	0–0	0–0	—	0–1	0–0	2–1	4–1	5–2	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–0
Lorient	1–0	0–1	2–2	3–1	1–1	2–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	2–2	—	0–0	4–1	1–1	1–3	2–1	2–1	0–0	0–3	3–1
Metz	3–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–2	1–1	0–1	2–0	2–1	—	3–0	3–0	5–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	3–0
Nancy	1–0	3–1	1–0	0–2	2–3	0–1	0–1	1–2	0–1	0–3	3–2	1–0	—	0–1	1–0	1–2	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–2
Niort	2–0	1–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–1	4–2	1–1	1–0	1–2	2–2	0–3	1–1	—	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0
Orléans	1–3	2–2	0–3	0–0	0–0	2–0	2–1	0–3	1–1	0–2	2–0	0–1	1–2	1–0	—	4–0	2–2	2–0	0–1	1–0
Paris FC	1–1	1–0	3–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	3–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–2	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–0	—	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–0
Red Star	2–0	1–1	1–0	0–3	0–2	1–3	0–4	2–3	0–1	1–0	0–3	1–2	1–1	1–2	0–4	0–1	—	3–0	0–3	1–0
Sochaux	0–0	2–0	1–4	1–0	2–0	0–0	2–1	3–1	1–3	0–1	1–0	1–2	0–4	0–3	0–1	1–0	1–2	—	0–0	0–1
Troyes	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–0	0–1	2–1	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	2–1	2–0	3–2	0–1	2–0	1–2	—	4–2
Valenciennes	4–0	0–0	3–1	5–6	1–3	1–1	0–4	3–2	1–0	4–2	1–2	0–2	1–1	1–2	1–4	0–0	4–1	1–0	0–1	—

Source: Ligue 2
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Promotion play-offs

A promotion play-off competition was held at the end of the season, involving the 3rd, 4th and 5th-placed teams in 2018–19 Ligue 2, and the 18th-placed team in 2018–19 Ligue 1.

The quarter-final was played on 21 May and the semi-final was played on 24 May.^[22]

	Quarter-final					Semi-final					Final
						3B	Troyes	1
						5B	Lens (a.e.t.)	2
	4B	Paris FC	1 (4)
	5B	Lens (p)	1 (5)
											5B	Lens	1	1	2
											18A	Dijon	1	3	4

Relegation play-offs

A relegation play-off was held at the end of the season between the 18th-placed Ligue 2 team and the 3rd-placed team of 2018–19 Championnat National. This was played over two legs on 28 May and 2 June.^[23]

28 May 2019

20:45 CEST

Le Mans	1–2	Gazélec Ajaccio
Boissier 53'	Report	Blayac 14' Jobello 48'

MMArena, Le Mans

Attendance: 22,800

Referee: François Letexier

---

2 June 2019

20:45 CEST

Gazélec Ajaccio	0–2	Le Mans
	Report	Boissier 73' Mamadou 90+7'

Stade Ange Casanova, Ajaccio

Attendance: 3,500

Referee: Mikael Lesage

Le Mans won 3–2 on aggregate and were promoted to Ligue 2, while Gazélec Ajaccio were relegated to the Championnat National.

Post-season actions and reprieves

On 12 June 2019, the financial regulator of French football, the DNCG announced that Nancy and Sochaux would be relegated to Championnat National due to their financial position.^[24] The decision is appealable, and both teams have indicated that they are appealing.^[25][26] Should one or more of the decisions be upheld at appeal, then Gazélec Ajaccio and Béziers would be reprieved from relegation in that order.^[24]

On 25 June 2019, the DNCG announced that AC Ajaccio would also be relegated to Championnat National due to their financial position. The club have indicated they are appealing. If this decision is upheld at appeal in addition to those of Nancy and Sochaux, then Red Star would also be reprieved from relegation.^[27]

On 3 July 2019, Nancy successfully appealed the DNCG decision, and will remain in Ligue 2.^[28]

On 8 July 2019, it was announced that Sochaux had successfully appealed the DNCG decision, and will remain in Ligue 2.^[29]

On 12 July 2019, it was announced that AC Ajaccio would remain in Ligue 2, having been successful in their appeal.^[30]

Top scorers

As of 17 May 2019 ^[31]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Gaëtan Charbonnier	Brest	27
2	Habib Diallo	Metz	26
3	Pierre-Yves Hamel	Lorient	19
4	Florian Ayé	Clermont	18
5	Yannick Gomis	Lens	16
6	Alexis Claude-Maurice	Lorient	14
	Yoann Touzghar	Troyes
8	Romain Armand	Gazélec Ajaccio	13
	Andé Dona Ndoh	Niort
10	Florian Sotoca	Grenoble	12
	Kévin Fortuné	Lens (1) and Troyes (11)