Newly-promoted Strasbourg stunned Neymar’s
Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 on Saturday to inflict
the first defeat of the season on the runaway
Ligue 1 leaders.
The exhausted Strasbourg players charged over
to their gobsmacked fans at the final whistle of
a breathless encounter which saw the lowly
hosts hold off a bombardment from their all-star
guests that lasted right to the end of the nine
minutes of stoppage time.
Stephane Bahoken downed PSG, who travel to
Bayern Munich on Tuesday, with a bullet finish in
the 65th minute to drag the lowly home side
away from relegation trouble and up to 14th.
His goal also gave Marseille the chance to close
the 10-point gap between Rudi Garcia’s in-form
side and PSG when they face Montpellier on
Sunday.
“We missed out tonight. We created chances but
we weren’t able to convert them. We conceded
two silly goals, we lacked a bit of concentration,”
PSG defender Marquinhos told Canal+.
“We will learn from this. We have a very
important match coming up and we need to think
about that already.”
Striker Bahoken struck just as Unai Emery’s side
looked primed to snatch the three points, with
Kylian Mbappe equalising Nuno Da Costa’s 13th-
minute headed opener three minutes before the
break and PSG piling on the pressure.
But with PSG camped in Strasbourg’s half and
the rested Edinson Cavani readying himself to
come on to push for the win, Bahoken raced onto
Da Costa’s flick-on and thumped his winner past
Alphonse Areola to consign PSG to their first
defeat in all competitions since April.
Dominant but wasteful PSG had two gilt-edged
chances just before Mbappe eventually
equalised, and both were fluffed by Angel Di
Maria in the space of two minutes.
First the Argentine sliced wide from a tight angle
in the 39th minute after racing onto Neymar’s
precision through-ball, then he shot straight at
Bingourou Kamara when fed neatly by his
countryman Javier Pastore.
Pastore thought he’d given PSG a deserved lead
just before the break when he spun on Mbappe’s
cross and drilled a hard low shot that flashed
past Kamara but crashed off the post and back
into the beaten keeper’s arms.
PSG continued to press for the winner
throughout the second half but Bahoken struck in
a lightning breakaway attack, and Strasbourg
shut up shop for the final 25 minutes.
They kept the away side at bay in a frantic final
flurry that saw substitute keeper Alexandre
Oukidja save the points with seconds remaining,
tipping away Cavani’s header just as the
Uruguayan looked certain to snatch what would
have been a heartbreaking point.
