Marseille threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at
home to Caen – missing the chance to move within
a point of Ligue 1 leaders Lyon.
Nicolas Benezet’s stunning late winner gave Caen a
come-from-behind 3-2 victory at Ligue 1 title
challengers Marseille on Friday.
Marcelo Bielsa’s team – who had given up winning
positions to draw their last two league games 2-2 –
looked on course for a comfortable win when
Andre-Pierre Gignac came off the bench to put
them two to the good just after the hour mark.
Victory would have lifted Marseille to within a point
of table-topping Lyon, but Caen had other ideas, as
Nicolas Seube and Emiliano Sala drew them level
within seven minutes of Gignac’s goal.
And substitute Benezet was on hand to complete a
remarkable comeback three minutes from time, as
he cut in from the left and rifled an unstoppable
drive beyond Steve Mandanda and into the far top
corner.
Caen were 2-0 down with just two minutes
remaining at champions Paris Saint-Germain a
fortnight ago – and Patrice Garande’s in-form side
once again displayed their powers of recovery to
deny Bielsa a vital three points.
Marseille had a golden opportunity to take the lead
after just three minutes, but Michy Batshuayi had
a penalty saved by Remy Vercoutre after he had
been fouled in the box by Alaeddine Yahia.
Buoyed by Vercoutre’s save, Caen twice went close
as first Emmanuel Imorou had an effort cleared off
the line, before Sala had an excellent shot tipped
onto the bar by Mandanda.
But it was Marseille who broke the deadlock in
first-half injury time, when Andre Ayew converted
the rebound after Vercoutre had saved Dimitri
Payet’s shot.
Sala was again unfortunate not to find the net early
in the second half when Benjamin Mendy cleared
his close-range shot off the line, and he was
punished for that bad miss when Gignac found the
net just four minutes after replacing Batshuayi.
Caen refused to buckle, though, and drew
themselves level within seven minutes through
Seube and Sala.
And there was to be one more twist in the tale,
as Benezet earned the visitors a sensational victory
with a goal worthy of winning any game.
posted from Bloggeroid
0 comments:
Post a Comment