Ivory Coast defender Serge Aurier was on Friday sent off against his old club as Paris Saint-Germain slumped to a 2-0 defeat away at Toulouse.
Aurier was shown a second yellow card for conceding a penalty that Yann Bodiger converted early in the second half to put Toulouse in front at Le Stadium.
Jimmy Durmaz then secured the win for the home side, as PSG suffered a second defeat in just seven league games this season to leave new coach Unai Emery facing more questions about his management.
Photo: Reuters
The reigning champions took until the end of March to lose twice in the league last season, but this loss followed a 3-1 reverse at AS Monaco last month and left Paris in third, a point behind OGC Nice and Toulouse.
Leaders Nice today go to AS Nancy-Lorraine while Monaco, who were yesterday to host Angers SCO, and Girondins de Bordeaux, who were to host Stade Malherbe Caen, could both climb above PSG in the table over the course of the weekend.
Emery’s side traveled to southwestern France fresh from two wins in a week in which they had scored nine goals and conceded none to seemingly kick-start their campaign.
French international winger Hatem Ben Arfa was again left out of the squad for a fourth straight game and there was no Marco Verratti, but Aurier returned after injury.
Edinson Cavani, who had scored five times in the past two matches, was twice brilliantly denied by 17-year-old Toulouse goalkeeper Alban Lafont in the first half before the game turned on an incident at the start of the second period.
Aurier, who had already been booked, was cautioned a second time for a foul on Ola Toivonen in the area and Bodiger sent Alphonse Areola the wrong way from the spot to open the scoring.
A young Toulouse side featured 19-year-old Clement Michelin starting a Ligue 1 game for the first time and 18-year-old loan striker Odsonne Edouard lining up against his parent club.
However, they secured the points against the 10 men after a disastrous mistake by substitute Thiago Motta on 79 minutes, who gifted possession to Swedish international Durmaz, and he ran through to make it 2-0.
It was Toulouse’s first win over PSG since 2009 and they celebrated with a lap of honor on the pitch at time.
“These are young players and they have above average technical ability, but they find it difficult to let themselves go,” said Toulouse coach Pascal Dupraz, who led his team to a miraculous escape from relegation at the end of last season. “I hope this win helps the players perform for the whole game from now on. We need to continue like this.”
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
Thousands of Taiwanese fans yesterday descended on the Tokyo Dome for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) opener, displaying banners proclaiming “Team Taiwan” as opposed to their official designation in the tournament, Chinese Taipei. Taiwan has long competed in international sport as “Chinese Taipei” to avoid objections from China. Outside the Tokyo Dome, self-described “fan activists” clad in the red, white and blue of Taiwan’s flag led chants of “Go Taiwan” in Mandarin and “Team Taiwan” in English. “Of course we hope to compete under the name Taiwan, so that in the future there will no longer be a ‘Chinese Taipei’ anymore — it
RSS