Long-time leaders Monaco won their seventh French league title on Saturday after a last gasp Dado Prso goal secured a 2-2 home draw with struggling Nancy at the Stade Louis II.
The point left Monaco, whose previous championship win came in 1997, ten points clear of rivals Lyon with three games remaining.
The Monegasques had suffered a severe attack of the jitters over the past fortnight as the finishing line came into view and they looked unsettled throughout despite Marco Simone's 12th-minute opening strike.
Nancy, third from bottom and on the verge of the drop, fought back defiantly and appeared to have burgled a 2-1 win through Olivier Rambo's 10th minute equalizer and a 40th minute effort from Fabien Lefevre, who only joined Nancy from Monaco earlier this year.
But Simone, who three times failed by a whisker to add to his season tally of 16 goals, raced down the left wing in the final seconds and Croatian forward Prso slid the ball into the net from barely a metre out.
Despite the feeling of anti-climax, many Monaco fans - some of them schoolchildren invited in for free - raced gleefully onto the pitch as the players embarked on a lap of honor while the PA speakers belted out a celebratory snatch of disco diva Gloria Gaynor's hit "I will survive", which became an unofficial anthem for France's World Cup Winning team -- PARIS (AFP)- Photos AFP.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
