Football: Marseille and Rennes follow Lens, Strasbourg sinks, what to remember from the 17th day of Ligue 1

Europe 1 with AFP 11:26 p.m., January 2, 2023

After their resounding success against Toulouse (6-1) on Thursday, OM won their fourth consecutive victory in the league.

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 made a second hook with the left foot, just as devastating, on… Arnaud Souquet this time, collecting an expected red card (87th), then Pau Lopez offered a penalty to Montpellier (transformed by Téji Savanier (90th + 1) ) completely missing its release.

Despite this slump, Igor Tudor's players won, and still stick, with 36 points, to Lens (40 pts), second behind Paris Saint-Germain (44 pts).

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Rennes follows

Not far from the Olympians are the Rennais, victorious in extremis from Nice thanks to a goal from Benjamin Bourigeaud (89th), who took Kasper Schmeichel on the wrong foot after a nice number from Flavien Tait.

This life-saving goal rewarded the superb game of the midfielder, a basic player in the Rennes collective game, and allowed the Breton club to remain fourth, two points behind OM.

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Terrier seriously injured?

This victory, Rennes acquired it by suffering, in the game, but also by seeing its best offensive element, Martin Terrier, hit in the right knee, go out on a stretcher half an hour into the game, screaming in pain.

It was he who opened the scoring (5th) with a powerful shot at close range.

The Englishman Ross Barkley, summer rookie from Nice, had imitated him by equalizing with a no less powerful strike, 25 meters (20th).

But that was not enough for the people of Nice, still stuck in the soft underbelly of the ranking (11th with 21 pts).

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Lille retreats

At the end of the afternoon, Lille drew against Reims (1-1), when they seemed to have the game in hand.

Enterprising, the Lille opened the scoring by their Canadian striker Jonathan David, ideally placed after a good sequence of another Jonathan, Bamba (32nd), but did not know how to widen the gap in the score, and a goal from the 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", summed up the captain of Losc Benjamin André at the microphone of Prime Video after the match.

In the standings, the Lille residents fall to 7th place (30 pts), while Reims nibbles a place (10th, 21 pts), with eight points ahead of the first relegation).

Strasbourg still defeated

At the start of the afternoon, Strasbourg started the year 2023 as it had ended 2022: with an infuriating defeat.

Beaten on Wednesday by Kylian Mbappé's Paris Saint-Germain (2-1), author of the victory penalty in the last moments, the Strasbourg players conceded two unlucky goals this time, then came back to score (2-2), before to give in one last time.

Two goals enlightened this meeting: the strike of the Strasbourg player Ismaël Doukouré, sublime, floating before hitting the crossbar then lodging in the skylight (54th), to which the Trojan Xavier Chavalerin responded, with a half-volley no less superb after a corner (78th).

This eighth defeat of the season (for a single victory) keeps Strasbourg in penultimate place, four points behind Ajaccio, the first non-relegation, while Troyes climbs to 13th position, five points from the red zone.

At the end of the match, an explanation took place between players and supporters, frustrated to see their team in bad shape after a successful 2021-2022 season (sixth place).