Aholou stars late as Strasbourg produce startling comeback against 10-man Marseille
Strasbourg displayed plenty of confidence early on, with Morgan Sanson heavily involved in the visitors’ attacking build-up.
The Aston Villa loanee saw a close-range effort blocked and also played a delightful long pass to Habib Diallo, whose angled strike went wide of the post. Antonetti's men looked anything but a side battling to beat the drop, and should have taken the lead through Thomas Delaine who, when racing through on goal, dragged his left-footed shot wide.
Shortly after, Leonardo Balerdi was shown a straight red card for bringing down Diallo, making Marseille’s task harder against the spirited strugglers.
The contact appeared minimal, but it was enough to send the Senegal international tumbling. Les Bleu et Blanc were carving Marseille open at will, and squandered another chance to break the deadlock before the interval, as Kevin Gameiro headed wide from Delaine’s cross.
However, that dominance counted for nothing, as Marseille took the lead just four minutes after the restart. Ruslan Malinovskyi exploited a gap in the wall from his free-kick, which was parried by Matz Sels towards Chancel Mbemba, who fired home the loose ball from inside the six-yard box.
Undeterred by the setback, Le Racing pressed forward through Sanjin Prcić, but the Bosnia and Herzegovina midfielder could only find the side-netting with his effort after working himself into a promising position.
But for all their promising play, Strasbourg were the architects of their downfall, and conceded a penalty when Frédéric Guilbert inexplicably pulled Alexis Sanchez's shirt in the box.
The Chilean made no mistake from the spot to send Metz the wrong way for his 14th goal of the season in all competitions, and end a small three-match scoring drought.
However, just when Marseille looked to be cruising to three points, Aholou struck twice in just under two minutes to secure a well-deserved point for the visitors.
First, his looping effort from a corner halved the deficit, before a stunning long-range shot levelled the scores. The Ivorian almost scored an incredible hat-trick, but was denied by Lopez.
The result means Marseille are now 10 points adrift of Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain with 11 matches remaining, although they do remain in the UEFA Champions League qualification places, while Strasbourg move up to 15th thanks to this unexpected point.
Flashcore Man of the Match: Jean-Eudes Aholou (Strasbourg)
