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.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS