Champions League hopefuls Olympique de Marseille and AS Monaco played out a thriller in Ligue 1 on Sunday evening to round off an entertaining weekend of French football.
Both sides enjoyed the lead in the contest, but they had to share the points when Georges-Kevin Nkoudou’s late equaliser rescued a point for Michel’s fallen giants.
The coach deserves credit for steadying the ship following the departure of Marcelo Bielsa and OM have now only lost one match in their last six in the French top flight following Sunday’s draw.
However, both they and their visitors left a lot to be desired defensively, with uncertain showings in defence characterising a thrilling contest.
Marseille took the lead in the 12th minute when Romain Alessandrini profited from Wallace’s inability to clear his lines before firing past Danijel Subasic, but Monaco responded six minutes later when Almamy Toure touched Fabio Coentrao’s free kick past Steve Mandanda.
The OM stopper was culpable shortly afterwards when Monaco collected his poor clearance, and Toure profited from a slip by Karim Rekik to fire past the French No. 2.
Next, it was Subasic’s turn to blunder as he failed to hold onto a cross from Remy Cabella, allowing Chelsea target Michy Batshuayi to fire home from close range.
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Monaco thought they’d secured the points when Coentrao’s header sneaked past Mandanda at the goalkeeper’s far post, but Marseille equalised late on when Georges-Kevin Nkoudou—one of the side’s stars in recent weeks—slammed Lucas Ocampos’s scuffed shot past Subasic.
The point takes OM up to eleventh, while Monaco drop down to seventh—one point behind Lyon in fourth.