Cavani rescues PSG in Strasbourg stalemate
PARIS: Edinson Cavani (pic) saved a point for Paris St Germain as the Ligue 1 leaders slipped for the second time in a week with a hugely entertaining 1-1 draw at Strasbourg.
The Uruguayan striker fired home a 71st-minute penalty to maintain PSG’s unbeaten record after 16 games despite a disjointed performance without injured star attacker Neymar, equalising Kenny Lala’s own spotkick four minutes before the break for the spirited hosts, who came close to inflicting their opponents first league defeat of the season.
“If you arrive in flip flops against PSG, you go home with a good spanking,” said Strasbourg coach Thierry Laurey.
“We suffered at times but we managed to minimise their offensive power.
“They dominated the play but we were never in too much danger.”
Thomas Tuchel’s side, who also drew at Bordeaux at the weekend and started without Kylian Mbappe and Thiago Silva, remain way ahead of the rest after a night in France full of late goals, incident and video assisted referee (VAR).
Champions PSG are 14 points ahead of Lille, who moved second on Tuesday after beating Montpellier 1-0 and stayed there thanks to Hatem Ben Arfa and Jordan Siebatcheu leading Rennes to a 2-0 win at Lyon on Wednesday.
Bruno Genesio’s Lyon are fourth, 15 points behind PSG, while inconsistent Marseille are a further two points back after a 3-2 defeat at Nantes.
PSG now don’t play until they travel to Serbia for their Champions League clash at Red Star Belgrade, where a win will ensure their progress to the last 16, after tomorrow’s match with Montpellier was postponed because of security concerns.
“We reacted and showed a lot of quality in the second half. We completely controlled play in the opposing half and had both a lot of possession and dangerous situations,” said Tuchel.
“We played very well in the second half, showed quality but could not score.”
The VAR was involved in a series of key decisions on Wednesday, and it was VAR that helped Strasbourg take the lead over PSG, with referee Antony Gautier awarding Lala’s spot-kick a full four minutes after Thilo Kehrer handled Lionel Carole’s fizzing cross.
The half-time deficit led Tuchel to bring Mbappe off the bench and it was France’s World Cup star who won the penalty that Cavani blasted past Matz Sels, Lala hacking the 19-year-old superstar down in the box.
PSG looked a different proposition to the sluggish team that slogged through the opening period, and Kehrer thought he had made amends for giving away the opening penalty six minutes after the break, only to see his header saved at point-blank range by Sels.
However as the half wore on the away side ran out of ideas and Strasbourg made a push for the win in the final minutes.
Substitute Adrien Thomasson forced a superb stop from Alphonse Areola with a minute left, and the 24-year-old thought he had snatched a famous win deep in injury time when he headed home Youssouf Fofana’s pinpoint cross.
However, while the majority of the crowd celebrated wildly, the linesman’s flag was rightly raised to rule the unfortunate Thomasson’s goal out for offside.