Stade Pierre-Mauroy gearing up to host Coupe de la Ligue final

The Stade Pierre-Mauroy has emerged as a fitting venue for the Coupe de la Ligue final later this month, with the home of LOSC Lille having become used to staging showcase events in recent years.

RC Strasbourg Alsace and EA Guingamp go head to head in this season's final on Saturday, March 30 with the aim of succeeding Paris Saint-Germain winners in each of the last five years - on the roll of honour.

Fans of both clubs will flock to Villeneuve-d'Ascq on the outskirts of Lille for the match, ensuring that there should be a sell-out crowd for the occasion at the 50,083-capacity ground.

The Stade Pierre-Mauroy will be the latest stadium to host the final of the competition since the decision was taken to move it away from the Stade de France.

PSG beat AS Monaco at the Groupama Stadium, home of Olympique Lyonnais, in 2017 and then defeated the same opponents at the Matmut Atlantique in Bordeaux 12 months ago.

Like those venues, and the Allianz Riviera in Nice, the Stade Pierre-Mauroy is part of the new wave of grounds to have opened in France in this decade. It has been home to LOSC since 2012, when Les Dogues finally ended an exile of eight years spent playing at the nearby Stadium Lille Mtropole.

They even staged certain gala fixtures - league meetings with Lyon and UEFA Champions League group games in the 2005-06 season - at the Stade de France. The club had left their old home in Lille, the Stade Grimonprez-Jooris, in 2004, never to return.

"The arrival of a stadium of this stature in the Lille area constitutes a revolution," said Michel Seydoux, Lille's president at the time.

"Of course this is a big thing for France, but also for Europe as well, because this stadium has been conceived to shine beyond our borders."