Ligue 1. Held in check in Strasbourg (1-1), Marseille stalls

The day after the opening of the famous Strasbourg Christmas market, Racing almost gave its supporters a first gift by opening the score very early in the match (5th). Angelo made a nice breakthrough before surprising the entire Marseille block by finding Kevin Gameiro in the interval to the right of the Olympian area, while the game called for the ball on the left. The veteran striker struck, then crossed back for Emmanuel Emegha, who only had to push the ball into the back of the net.

Open in eclipse

The Dutch Espoirs international scored his second goal since his arrival in Alsace, which the Meinau public hoped would be liberating at this moment of the match. The tall twenty-year-old striker (1.95 m), recruited for thirteen million, has not shown much since he wore the colors of Racing. Alas, Emegha disappeared immediately afterwards, failing to make any impact in the game. With him, all of Racing plunged, suffering Marseille’s attacks without responding.

Vitinha first sounded the revolt, but came up against Matz Sels, who came out well (13th). The Strasbourg goalkeeper then made an extraordinary save, deflecting at point blank range a rebound from Joaquin Correa (19th). He only postponed the deadline, since Jonathan Clauss equalized with a nice left-footed shot (27th). Born and trained in Strasbourg, the right-back did not celebrate his gesture.

This goal was predictable as the Marseillais infiltrated at will into the left side of Strasbourg. The fault in particular lies with Ângelo, much quicker to overtake the Marseille defense than to help the right side Frédéric Guilbert, in difficulty facing the contribution of Jordan Veretout, omnipresent in the first period. The Brazilian was also cropped shortly after by Patrick Vieira.

But while the Marseillais developed an exciting game, and combined well, they, very quickly after the start of the second period, slowed down, to the point of suffering during almost the entire second act.

Bakwa on the bar

Kévin Gameiro continued his convincing match by being very close to punishing Marseille (53rd). Then the Alsatians obtained a triple opportunity, at the end of a rare constructed movement first, then a high recovery, and finally a corner (58th).

Gennaro Gattuso’s players finally broke after a corner, when Diarra caught a ball released in the air by Pau Lopez (63rd), but the goal was refused because the referee Jérôme Brisard considered that the goalkeeper had been pushed, which seemed unclear in slow motion… Dilane Bakwa, with a shot that hit the crossbar (72nd), then Habib Diarra (80th), had the opportunity to have the last word, in vain.