Brest the surprise of the French league as it prepares to visit leader PSG
PARIS (AP) — With Paris Saint-Germain seemingly cruising to another French league title, the unexpected rise of Brest has been the season's success story.
Brest is nine points behind PSG in third place and its realistic goal is qualifying for the Champions League for the first time. It would be a remarkable achievement for such a small club from a quaint port city in the Brittany region.
Like Leicester City a few years ago, Brest has become many French fans' favorite other club.
Winning the league would be as huge an upset as when Leicester won the English Premier League in 2016, but given PSG's dominance that looks extremely unlikely.
Still, Brest can close the gap on PSG to six points if it wins in Paris on Sunday, and also has a chance to knock PSG out of the French Cup when they meet in the round of 16 on Feb. 7.
Journeyman midfielder Pierre Lees-Melou is Brest's best player while co-top scorers Kamory Doumbia and Romain Del Castillo have five each compared to Kylian Mbappé's league-leading 19 for PSG.
Although Lees-Melou and striker Steve Mounié had brief spells in the Premier League, Brest's players are generally not well known outside of France.
So while PSG is trying to stop Mbappé from leaving, Brest is fending off only Brittany rival Rennes for Lees-Melou.
Veteran midfielder Nemanja Matić's move to Rennes is not working out as expected and so the 30-year-old Lees-Melou — a crisp passer with good vision — appears the ideal fit should Matić leave during this month's transfer window.
Brest coach Eric Roy— a solid midfielder in his day — has got the best out of Lees-Melou by positioning him slightly higher up the field, where his technical ability makes more of a difference.
For now, Lees-Melou's focus is keeping his over-achieving club only on course for its highest ever league position and a money-spinning Champions League qualification very few would have predicted.
Brest has a best league finish of 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.
Brest's trophy cabinet is also small — the club won the second division in 1981.
PSG has won a record 11 French titles and a record 14 French Cups, while Brest has never gone further than the quarterfinals of the competition.
Although Brest's attack falls way below PSG's in terms of goals — 44 compared to 27 — Brest has allowed only one more goal than PSG, 15-14.
Roy's team is hard to break down and Brest's last five wins have all been without conceding a goal.
Picking PSG off on the counterattack worked for second-placed Nice when it won 3-2 in September, and so it might prove to be Brest's best chance of handing PSG its second defeat of the season.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
