A last-gasp Prince Oniangue winner put the sparkle back into Stade de Reims’ season on Saturday with a 3-2 win at Ligue 1 rivals Olympique de Marseille.
The side from the Champagne region handed last season’s Ligue 1 runners-up a fifth straight defeat in all competitions to put Marseille boss Elie Baup under increasing pressure.
Despite the backing of club president Vincent Labrune, Baup saw his side drop to provisional sixth having also almost bid farewell to the UEFA Champions League after their 2-1 loss to SSC Napoli last week.
“We’re in a very difficult period,” Baup said. “The third goal left a bitter taste. The Champions League is not easy and that has a knock-on effect on the league.”
The hosts were trailing by two goals at halftime.
Reims opened the scoring after 34 minutes when Franco-Togolese midfielder Floyd Ayite’s free-kick deflected by a Saber Khalifa header deceived Steve Mandanda in goal.
Just three minutes later, Reims, who had just won two matches in their previous 10, added a second from from Danish midfielder Mads Albaek.
The visitors almost scored a third two minutes before the break, but Gaeten Courtet missed the target.
Marseille were jeered by their own fans, but Florian Thauvin lifted their spirits when he got one back after 56 minutes.
Substitute Andre-Pierre Gignac then set the Stade Velodrome alight when on 86 minutes he equalized shortly after coming on the pitch, but Marseille paid the price for leaving Congolese midfielder Oniangue unmarked and he scored past Mandanda as Baup’s side lost in stoppage-time for the third time this season.
Reims moved up to 10th just two points behind Marseille.
“We came here to fix the errors of our last two away matches,” Reims coach Hubert Fournier said, adding that he had analyzed Marseille play Napoli to see how best to take them on. “They have players on the pitch who are worth 30 million euros [US$41 million], our overall budget, but they reacted well in the second half.”
Meanwhile, En Avant de Guingamp overtook Marseille on goal-difference to move fifth after leaving it late before goals from Claudio Beauvue and Mustapha Diallo in the final six minutes gave them a 2-1 win against visiting AC Ajaccio.
The Corsicans had opened the scoring four minutes before the break through Benjamin Andre.
Midtable Stade Rennais went on a goal spree at Toulouse, getting five past goalkeeper Ali Ahamada in a 5-0 victory in Brittany.
Sebastien Squillaci scored a first-half goal to give SC Bastia a 1-0 win over OGC Nice, while Lorient won 2-1 against fellow strugglers Sochaux-Montbeliard and bottom-of-the-table Valenciennes fell 1-0 at home to Evian Thonon Gaillard.
Barcelona’s Ferran Torres scored twice on Sunday to help secure a late 4-2 comeback win at Atletico Madrid in a pulsating La Liga clash that took the Catalan side back to the top of the table. Barca have 60 points and a game in hand after last week’s postponement of their home game with CA Osasuna. They are level on points with Real Madrid, who won 2-1 at Villarreal on Saturday. “I am happy and proud of this team,” Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick told a news conference. “They never give up... It’s a great three points and we are happy to
‘AWFUL PERFORMANCE’: Golden State were always chasing the game after failing to threaten from long range, making just eight of 33 three-point attempts Aaron Gordon on Monday scored 38 points as the Denver Nuggets shrugged off the absence of Nikola Jokic to halt the Golden State Warriors’ seven-game winning streak with a 114-105 victory over their Western Conference rivals. A dazzling display from Gordon inspired what was ultimately a comfortable win for Denver, who were missing regular starters Jokic and Jamal Murray from their lineup. The absentees were barely felt by Denver, who startled the Warriors early at San Francisco’s Chase Center and led for most of the game. The Warriors threatened to stage a late rally after slashing the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter lead from 15 points
Paolo Banchero on Sunday scored 24 points as the Orlando Magic overturned a 13-point deficit to end the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game unbeaten streak with a gutsy 108-103 road victory. Cleveland, the runaway Eastern Conference leaders, had looked poised to extend their franchise-record winning run after surging clear of Orlando early in the third quarter, but after a season where they have staged hefty winning comebacks of their own, the tables turned on Cleveland in the face of a furious burst of Orlando scoring. The Magic outscored Cleveland 35-23 in the third quarter, with Franz Wagner leading the charge with nine points and
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
RSS