THE MATCH

Strasbourg had failed to win either of their last two home matches, while Nantes had lost seven of their previous 13 away games in 2023. 

With both having lost last time out, they were understandably cautious in an opening half that saw few chances created, especially with Mostafa Mohamed - Nantes' top scorer - suspended while Strasbourg were without the injured Dutch forward Emmanuel Emegha.

Nantes took aim first with Florent Mollet forcing a save from Matz Sels (7') that the Belgian goalkeeper did well to turn round the post. 

Only the bottom two teams in the table coming into Round 8 had scored fewer goals than Strasbourg and Lebo Mothiba was the only man currently in the squad to have found the net more than once - the other being the departed Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.

The South Africa international had the hosts only sight of goal in the first half when he latched onto Marvin Senaya's cross, but he was unable to guide his first-time shot on target (39').

Within the space of just seven minutes early in the second half, Nantes turned the game in their favour. Moses Simon burst down the right, past Kevin Gameiro and Thomas Delaine, and when Gerzino Nyamsi failed to deal with the cross, Marcus Coco took the opportunity to fire past Sels (51').

Coco was involved again shortly afterwards when Nantes doubled their lead. It was the ex-Guingamp man's cross that Simon headed against a post, Sels then brilliantly pushed out Mollet's follow-up, Nyamsi blocked Quentin Merlin's effort but Samuel Moutoussamy was following up, and there was no stopping the half-time substitute's powerful shot (58').

Strasbourg coach Patrick Vieira made a host of changes, including bringing on Habib Diarra who had not started due to an injury picked up in last week's loss to Lens, but they made little difference as Strasbourg slipped to a second successive defeat in front of their own fans and a third home game without a win despite Moïse Sahi's late consolation strike (90+1').

THE PLAYER: Marcus Coco

He has had a career plagued by injury problmes, but when when he is fit and on song, he can turn any match in his team's favour as he showed here. With Nantes short on firepower, they needed someone to step up: Coco did.

THE STAT: 4

Strasbourg have now failed to score in four of their last seven Ligue 1 Uber Eats games.

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