PARIS: Olympique de Marseille conceded two late goals to draw 2-2 at home to Strasbourg in Ligue 1 on Sunday having played for over an hour with 10 men after Leonardo Balerdi was sent off.

The Argentine centre-back saw red for bringing down Habib Diallo as the last defender on 29 minutes, but Marseille took the lead right after half-time through Chancel Mbemba.

Alexis Sanchez tucked away a penalty to put Marseille firmly in control, but Jean-Eudes Aholou struck twice in the final three minutes to stun the hosts and rescue a vital point for his side.

Marseille are 10 points behind leaders Paris St Germain and their grip on second place is under threat from Lens, now just two points behind.

Strasbourg kicked off at the Velodrome in 17th place but pulled themselves out of relegation zone with Aholou’s equaliser.

Lois Openda scored a five-minute first-half hat-trick as Lens thrashed Clermont 4-0 earlier in the day to climb back above Monaco into third.

Lens’ improbable title challenge had fizzled out after only one win in their past seven games but Openda, who had not scored since January 11, took advantage of the gifts from the home defence.

Monaco slumped to a 1-0 loss at home to Reims as Arsenal loanee and England Under-21 international Folarin Balogun scored his 16th league goal.

Reims moved to eighth and to within four points of the European places.

Toulouse won 2-0 at bottom side Angers and Lorient beat Troyes by the same scoreline.

Nantes grabbed a late equaliser through Egypt forward Mostafa Mohamed to draw 2-2 against Nice, while Montpellier defeated Ajaccio 1-0.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2023