With relentless realism, the RC Strasbourg players disposed of the Canaries on their lawn (3-1). Kevin Gameiro opened the scoring from the start by scoring his 100th goal in the league (1-0, 3rd) before seeing his team caught up just before the break with a goal from Cömert (1-1, 36th).
Returning from the locker room, Emmanuel Emegha showed his speed and precision twice (62nd, 78th) to offer success to the Alsatians. Strasbourg distances itself from the red zone while Nantes takes the place of barrier.
The Canaries completely missed their start to the match. On one of Strasbourg’s first breakthroughs, Kevin Gameiro scored his 100th goal in Ligue 1 after a good run into the area to get rid of the marking and deceive Alban Lafont with his left foot (0-1, 3rd). Defeated by this first Alsatian cannon shot, the people of Nantes took time to react. After resisting several chances from the visitors, Jocelyn Gourvennec’s men finally managed to push towards the Alsatian surface. On a poorly cleared free kick, Eray Cörmet first saw his head pushed back before placing a pointer to put the Canaries back on level terms (1-1, 36th).
Invigorated by this equalization, the locals pushed, supported by their public, to take the lead but lacked accuracy in the last gesture. The two teams therefore returned to the locker room with a parity score. After the end of the first act, the teams took the time to observe each other so as not to reveal themselves too much in this crucial meeting for maintenance. Alban Lafont remained attentive on his line to repel the Strasbourg strikes for 15 minutes but his defense showed signs of weakness in the deep attack of the Alsatian attackers. On high pressure, Patrick Vieira’s men recovered an interesting ball to regain the advantage.
Served on the right side of the area, Dutch striker Emmanuel Emegha crossed his shot perfectly to deceive the Canaries goalkeeper and restore the advantage to RC Strasbourg (1-2, 60th). Aware that they had to react to avoid diving into the red zone, the locals finally began to push to get back into the score. But by dint of lacking precision, they exposed themselves to opposing counterattacks. On a long clearance, Emegha went behind the defense again. On a superb serve from Bakwa, he dribbled past the Nantes goalkeeper to make the break (1-3, 78th) and allow Strasbourg to bring home three very valuable points in this race to maintain.