Monaco missed the chance to climb back up to second place in Ligue 1 when they lost 2-1 at home to Toulouse on Sunday while Rennes comfortably beat Clermont 3-1 to continue their winning streak.
Toulouse opened the scoring in the 41st minute when skipper
Vincent Sierro caught Monaco goalkeeper Philipp Kohn out of position on a
free-kick.
Monaco levelled just after the restart through Maghnes
Akliouche but failed throughout the game to capitalise on a host of other
chances.
Centre-forward Folarin Balogun was the main culprit. The
American fluffed an early one-on-one with goalkeeper Guillaume Restes and then
squandered another golden opportunity from close range after being set up by
Thilo Kehrer.
Toulouse made them pay in the 70th minute when a corner fell
for defender Logan Costa to fire in.
Defeat means Monaco stay fourth on 38 points, level with
Lille, who beat Le Havre 3-0 on Saturday, and one point behind Nice who slipped
to a 1-0 loss at Lyon on Friday.
Paris Saint-Germain, who beat Nantes 2-0 on Saturday, remain
clear leaders on 53 points, 14 ahead of Nice.
Brest, 37 points, can take over second spot if they beat
Marseille in Sunday’s late game.
Rennes, meanwhile, made it six wins on the bounce with a 3-1
victory over bottom-placed Clermont, thanks to a brace from in-form midfielder
Martin Terrier and one from Warmed Omari.
It would have been more had Clermont goalie Mory Diaw not
kept out Ludovic Blas’s 38th minute penalty.
Rennes are seventh with 34 points, in touching distance of
the European places.
Clermont, however, remain rooted to the bottom with just 16
points, one fewer than Metz who lost 3-0 at Montpellier.
Lorient climbed out of the bottom three with a 3-1 win over
Strasbourg with new signing Mohamed Bamba scoring twice.
AFP