Caen win to go second as Marseille draw with Monaco
STRASBOURG: Caen climbed to second place in Ligue 1 by thumping Girondins Bordeaux 4-1 away while Olympique de Marseille snatched a 3-3 draw at home to AS Monaco thanks to Georges-Kevin Nkoudou’s late equaliser in a thriller on Sunday.
Caen took the lead through Syam Ben Youssef in the sixth minute and went further ahead with second-half efforts from Damien Da Silva, a Cedric Carrasso own goal and Andy Delort. Willy Sagnol’s Bordeaux side had Andre Poko sent off in the 81st minute before Enzo Crivelli bagged a late consolation for the home side in the final minute. The win takes Caen to 28 points above Angers (26) and Olympique Lyonnais (25) and 13 points behind Paris SaintGermain. Bordeaux drop to 14th, with four wins all season. Ahead of Marseille’s match, the fans paid tribute to the victims of the attacks on Paris by Islamist militants on Nov. 13 which killed 130 people and left more than 350 injured.
On the pitch, wretched defending made for a topsy-turvy contest with the hosts taking the lead after 12 minutes when Romain Alessandrini slammed the ball past Danijel Subasic after Wallace cleared Bernard Mendy’s dangerous cross into his path.
Marseille enjoyed most possession but it was the visitors who equalised when Almamy Toure evaded the defence to tap home a superb free kick from Fabio Coentrao after 19 minutes.
Toure bagged an unlikely second in the 39th when he profited from Karim Rekik’s slip before slotting past Steve Mandanda. Marseille’s Michy Batshuayi equalised in the 51st when Subasic came to claim a cross but missed the ball, allowing the striker to finish from close range although he looked offside.
Coentrao’s header from Elderson Echiejile’s cross crept in at the far post in the 72nd to make it 3-2 to Monaco but Georges-Kevin Nkoudou levelled when he arrived late to fire home Lucas Ocampos’s mis-hit strike 10 minutes later.
The point leaves Marseille in 11th place on 19 points, while Monaco drop to seventh on 24. StEtienne beat 12th-placed Guingamp 3-0 to move up to fifth on 25 points after second-half goals by Romain Hamouma, Valentin Eysseric and Nolan Roux, although they had Bayal Sall dismissed for a second yellow card in the 90th minute. — Reuters