Stade Rennais missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1 on Sunday, blowing a lead to draw 1-1 at home with AS Saint-Etienne.
Rennes winger Jonathan Pitroipa played a one-two with Julien Feret to fire a low shot that goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier parried, but Morocco forward Youssouf Hadji followed up to bury the ball into the net in the 41st minute.
Rennes nearly added a second goal in the 53rd minute when Pitroipa beat the offside trap to be clean through on goal, but the Burkina Faso forward sent his lob over the bar.
Photo: Reuters
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leveled for Saint-Etienne in the 56th minute. The Gabon forward outjumped Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik to head a cross from Fabien Lemoine into the top corner.
Saint-Etienne came close to scoring a winner in the 67th minute. Substitute Max Gradel beat defender Chris Mavinga to the ball, but he dragged his shot wide from 15m out.
“It was a tough match,” Pitroipa told Canal Plus television. “Our level dropped in the second half unfortunately and they equalized. It’s a pity to take only a point tonight.”
Rennes slipped to fifth place, two points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Lyonnais and Toulouse.
“When you score first, you must be able to protect your lead,” Rennes coach Frederic Antonetti said. “That’s something we are not capable of doing. We must work on that.”
Also on Sunday, Dennis Oliech scored a second-half hat-trick to lead AJ Auxerre to a 4-1 win over Sochaux-Montbeliard and AC Ajaccio were held 1-1 at Stade Brestois 29.
Sochaux forward Modibo Maiga collected a pass from Yassin Mikari to beat goalkeeper Olivier Sorin after only two minutes, but Alain Traore converted a low cross from Oliech to get his sixth goal this season and level for Auxerre in the 51st minute.
Oliech then took advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper Teddy Richert to slot into an empty net in the 52nd minute. The Kenya forward converted a rebound in the 63rd minute to make it 3-1, before completing the rout with another goal in the 67th minute.
“It’s a heavy defeat,” Sochaux coach Mecha Bazdarevic told the club’s Web site.
We must get back to work quickly and change our mindset. It has more to do with our heads than with our legs,” he said.
Sochaux also lost 6-2 to Rennes on Wednesday and they have conceded 10 goals in their last two games.
In Brest, striker Nolan Roux put the hosts ahead with a close-range header in the 61st minute, but Ajaccio substitute Richard Socrier equalized with a chip in the 66th minute.
Brest and Ajaccio both remained in the relegation zone.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to