France
Ligue 2
Tuesday 4th February 2020
Kick Off 21.05. On Time !
Paris F.C. 2 Athletic Club Ajaccio 3, attendance 1,875 (official)
7’ 0-1
11’ 1-1 (pen)
24’ 1-2
42’ 2-2
86’ 2-3
@ Stade Sebastien Charlety
99 Boulevard Kellermann
75013 Paris
€15 Admission
Programme free, 8 pages.
The Stade Sébastien Charléty, which is in the south of Paris, was opened in 1939 and is now a modern all seated stadium of 20,000 capacity. It is far too big for Paris F.C. (tonight’s crowd was barely 500, despite what the official attendance figure claims), but along with Red Star ‘93 they are very much the poor relations as far as football goes in the French capital. Paris F.C. were formed in 1969, but just one year later they merged with Stade Saint-Germain, forming Paris Saint-Germain, who are now one of the richest clubs in the world. By 1973 the two clubs had split and they have certainly gone in different directions since. Whilst P.S.G. dominate the game in France, Paris F.C. have struggled to establish themselves and haven’t played in Ligue 1 since 1978/79 season.
Tonight’s match was 19th (second bottom) versus 3rd in the league table. As French matches go, this was actually quite entertaining. It certainly helped that the visitors (from the island of Corsica) took an early lead when a back pass was under hit, leading to the ball being played across the box for an easy tap in. Within four minutes it was level again when Paris scored from a very generously awarded penalty. A cracking left footed volley from 20 yards put the visitors back in front, but Paris made it 2-2 in the dying minutes of the half. The crossbar was hit three times, but it looked like we would see no more goals. However, Paris missed an absolute ‘sitter’ with four minutes to go, blazing high and wide with the goal gaping and Ajaccio then went down the other end and a through ball was slipped past the onrushing ‘keeper by substitute Jallow to take the three points.
Paris is just about as far as you’d want to travel for a day trip, and if you do, you certainly need four people in the car to try and offset the French Toll Road costs. The return journey, 185 miles each way from The Tunnel, was a whopping €42.20 in tolls, and on top of that, there was the car parking charge. €16.60 in the underground car park beneath the stadium. The journey down took considerably longer than the return, not helped by hitting Paris in ‘rush hour’. The 21.05 kick off, along with the near three hour drive, meant we had to book the 03.25 return on Eurotunnel, due to the lack of trains running through the night. At least it left on time, but it lost 10 minutes off the scheduled arrival. Once again the M20 had closures, which seems to be a permanent thing these days! It was closed from Junction 11 to 10, then again from Junction 4 to 2, meaning key in the door at 04.40. One consolation though. The other three passengers would be home an hour later than me!
