Marseille and Rennes celebrated 2023 with 2-1 victories on Monday in matchday 17 of Ligue 1, against Montpellier and Nice respectively, while Lille were held back by Reims (1-1) and Troyes sank Strasbourg (3 -2).
After the resounding success against Toulouse (6-1) on Thursday, OM achieved their fourth consecutive league victory. After a lackluster first period, Nuno Tavares opened the scoring with his right foot after an effective left hook (47′), then Maxime Estève scored against his side under pressure from Chancel Mbemba (61′).
But Tavares landed a second, equally devastating left hook on… Arnaud Souquet this time, collecting an expected red card (87th), then Pau Lopez offered Montpellier a penalty – converted by Téji Savanier (90th+1) – its output is completely missing.
Despite this collapse, Igor Tudor’s players won, and still remain, with 36 points, at Lens (40 points), second behind Paris Saint-Germain (44 points).
Not far from the Olympians are the Rennais, victorious in extremis from Nice thanks to a goal by Benjamin Bourigeaud (89th), who displaced Kasper Schmeichel after a good number from Flavien Tait.
This life-saving goal rewarded the superb play of the midfielder, a key player in Rennes’ collective game, and allowed the Breton club to remain fourth, two points adrift of OM.
Terrier badly injured? –
Rennes won this victory by suffering during the match, but also by seeing their best offensive element, Martin Terrier, hit in his right knee, go out on a stretcher half an hour into the match, screaming in pain.
It was he who opened the scoring (5th) with a powerful close-range shot. The Englishman Ross Barkley, Nice’s summer rookie, had imitated him by equalizing with a no less powerful shot, 25 meters (20th). But this wasn’t enough for the people of Nice, still stuck in the soft underbelly of the standings (11th with 21 points).
At the end of the afternoon, Lille drew against Reims (1-1), when they seemed to have the game in hand.
Enterprising, Lille opened the scoring with their Canadian striker Jonathan David, ideally placed after a good sequence from another Jonathan, Bamba (32nd), but was unable to widen the gap in the score, and a goal from Swede Jens Cadjus ( 79th), with a deflected shot at the entrance to the penalty area, deprived them of the three points.
“We had several occasions where we could have made the break. We can only blame ourselves,” Losc captain Benjamin André summed up on Prime Video after the match.
In the standings, the Lille residents drop to 7th place (30 points), while Reims gnaw a place (10th, 21 points), eight points ahead of the first relegation).
– Strasbourg still defeated –
Earlier in the afternoon, Strasbourg started 2023 as they ended 2022: with a maddening defeat. Beaten on Wednesday by Kylian Mbappé’s Paris Saint-Germain (2-1), who scored the winning penalty in the last moments, the Strasbourg players this time conceded two unfortunate goals, then scored again (2-2), before giving up in one last time.
Two goals lit up this match: the shot by Strasbourg’s Ismaël Doukouré, sublime, floating before hitting the crossbar then slipping into the skylight (54th), which was answered by Trojan Xavier Chavalerin, with a no less superb half-volley from corner kick (78°).
This eighth defeat of the season (by just one win) keeps Strasbourg in penultimate place, four points behind Ajaccio, their first non-relegation, while Troyes climb to 13th position, five points from the red zone.
At the end of the match there was an explanation between players and fans, frustrated to see their team in bad shape after a successful 2021-2022 season (sixth place).
