St Etienne denied last-gasp win

Kossi Agassa denied St Etienne all three points at the death as plucky Reims took a point from a goalless draw.

Visiting goalkeeper Agassa endured some shaky moments as Les Verts dominated the creative play – ex-Leeds man Max Gradel at the heart of the performance – while opposite number Stephane Ruffier also remained resolute.

But it was Agassa who repelled Brandao’s acrobatic effort deep into stoppage time to extend Reims’ unbeaten run in Ligue 1 to a fifth game, and leave St Etienne without a league win in four attempts.

St Etienne started brightly, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang controlling Gradel’s cross before drilling the ball against Agassa after just two minutes of play.

The hosts raided forward again and Josua Guilavogui saw his audacious lob beat Agassa – but also the crossbar – following good work from Fabien Lemoine.

Only the linesman’s flag saved Reims in the 27th minute, Guilavogui seizing on a poor clearance from Agassa to tee up Aubameyang for an easy tap-in, the tall striker caught out by the offside trap.

Reims came alive five minutes before the break as Antoine Devaux released Floyd Ayite in behind the home back line. Ruffier remained alert, though, sweeping the ball off the Togo international’s boot just in time.

St Etienne were back on the offensive following the restart and Aubameyang should have done better as Romain Hamouma provided him with a sweet through-ball.

Gradel tricked his way into the area to find Lemoine but Agassa was fast to deflect the snapshot away for a corner.

The home pressure grew but Aubameyang could not keep his shot down when picked out in the penalty box by the impressive Gradel.

Ruffier did well to turn Grzegorz Krychowiak’s effort round his post as Pape N’Diaye Souare caused havoc on the break, before Agassa repeated the trick at the other end as Brandao burst into the box.

And the Reims keeper would earn his side a valuable point in stoppage time as Brandao matched Aubameyang’s superb cross.

The Brazilian connected perfectly with the ball but Agassa’s magnificent save meant the visitors stayed alive at the Stade Geoffroy Guichard.

Bordeaux boost at Lyon

Lyon blinked first in the battle of two unbeaten sides as goals from Benoit Tremoulinas and Cheick Diabate gave Bordeaux victory in Ligue 1.

Remi Garde’s men were left to rue a disallowed goal from Alexandre Lacazette as they strived to peg Bordeaux back following Tremoulinas’ deflected opener.

But try as they might, Les Gones could not find a way past a determined Cedric Carrasso in the visiting goal, with Diabate confirming Les Girondins’ ascent to fifth place in the league table.

Lyon were determined to put the visitors under the cosh from the first whistle, Clement Grenier blasting over the crossbar before Bafetimbi Gomis flirted with the idea of scoring in the ninth minute.

After the early rough and tumble, the game settled into a steady rhythm and it was not until the 27th minute that Les Gones threatened again. The skilful Lisandro Lopez shirked the attentions of Henrique but was unable to produce an accurate finish.

For all Lyon’s early promise, Carrasso did not have a feel of the ball until Grenier seized on Jaroslav Plasil’s poor clearance to fizz a low strike against the Bordeaux stopper.

Plasil was eager to make amends for his first-half blunder as the game resumed but his cross to Diabate resulted in a confident smother from Remy Vercoutre.

The dangerous Lyon re-emerged in the 57th minute, Lopez and Gomis combining to feed Grenier but Carrasso repelled his thunderous drive to safety.

The hosts would come to regret their profligacy as Bordeaux took the lead against the run of play in the 65th minute.

A speculative effort from Tremoulinas took a sizeable deflection off Dejan Lovren, wrongfooting Vercoutre before nestling in the back of the net.

Lyon thought they had scored a quick equaliser when Lacazette peeled away to celebrate a confident header from a corner.

But much to the home fans’ dismay, the referee decided that Grenier’s delivery had gone out of play as it swung into the box.

With an eight-match unbeaten record now in serious jeopardy, Yassine Benzia spurned a gilt-edged chance to unsettle Bordeaux.

Lopez craftily released the teenage striker but he could only pull his shot wide with Carrasso to beat.

But the writing was on the wall as Diabate capitalised on a defensive mix-up between Mouhamadou Dabo and Lovren to nod over Vercoutre in the 81st minute.

Substitute Jimmy Briand might have reduced the deficit with four minutes remaining but brushed the wrong side of a post as Carrasso stood rooted to the spot.

Marseille’s perfect start ends

Marseille’s perfect start to the Ligue 1 season came to a grinding halt as they were beaten 4-1 at Valenciennes.

The hosts raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half through Gael Danic and Anthony Le Tallec before Marseille’s dismal afternoon took a further nosedive when goalkeeper Steve Mandanda inexplicably rolled the ball out to VA’s Foued Kadir, who had a simple task to fire home.

Le Tallec added his second after the break before Jordan Ayew bagged a late consolation for the beleaguered visitors.

The defeat ends a run of six straight wins at the start of the season for OM, who could see their lead at the summit trimmed to a point if Lyon defeat Bordeaux.

VA, meanwhile, move comfortably into the top half of the standings after their third win of the season.

The hosts wasted little time in going ahead, 16 minutes on the watch when Danic curled home a wonderful free-kick from 20 yards into the top-right corner.

Valenciennes doubled their advantage on 34 minutes when Danic dispossessed Rod Fanni, surged into the area and teed up Le Tallec for a simple finish.

And the lead was out to three in the 39th minute as a moment of madness by Mandanda cost his team dear.

There looked to be no danger for the visitors as the goalkeeper gathered the ball, but for reasons known only to himself he threw out straight to the disbelieving Kadir, who duly slotted home.

Mandanda made partial amends with a good save to deny Le Tallec on the hour, but within three minutes VA had their fourth, Kadir delivering a perfect cross from the left for Le Tallec to head home.

A small crumb of comfort went Marseille’s way in injury time when Ayew lashed home on the volley to deny Nicolas Penneteau a clean sheet, but it was too little to mask an abject performance by the league pacesetters.

Meier brace seals Frankfurt win

Two goals in five second-half minutes from Alexander Meier maintained Eintracht Frankfurt’s unbeaten start to the season and gave them a 2-1 victory over Freiburg at the Waldstadion.

Max Kruse gave the visitors a shock lead in the 50th minute after Christian Streich’s side had spent much of the game defending.

Meier had a goal ruled out for offside, but there was no doubt over his third and fourth goals of the season, which earned the home side a fifth win in six games.

Karim Guede made matters worse for the visitors when he was given his marching orders in stoppage time.

The only flash of danger in the first half came when Takashi Inui raced clear of defence in the 27th minute, but he was unable to beat Freiburg goalkeeper Oliver Baumann in a one-on-one.

Freiburg had been very defensive, but they made their first big chance on the break count in the 50th minute.

Sebastian Freis’ shot was saved by Kevin Trapp, but the ball broke to Kruse, who accepted the gift to register his third goal of the season.

Meier saw a goal ruled out for offside with Freiburg also having a goal disallowed before the Frankfurt midfielder levelled.

He needed just two touches to first turn and then volley Bastian Oczipka’s cross into the top left-hand corner in the 68th minute.

And five minutes later, he met Oczipka’s corner with his head from six yards out to put Frankfurt ahead.

A rush of blood to the head then saw Guede go in with a high leg on an opponent in the first minute of stoppage time, both earning a straight red card for his troubles and adding to coach Christian Streich’s woes at the conclusion of his side’s third defeat of the season.

More woe for Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg’s home misery continued as they were beaten 2-0 by Mainz at the VW-Arena, leaving them languishing in the bottom three of the Bundesliga.

Junior Diaz’s first goal in a Mainz shirt and an Adam Szalai effort gave Mainz a two-goal lead before the interval.

Wolfsburg were unable to recover in the second half, wasting chance after chance as their curse at home, where they have not won all season continued.

Felix Magath’s side started brightly with the technically-gifted Vieirinha causing problems to the Mainz rearguard.

He had the first chance of the game in the 20th minute, but Christian Wetklo punched his shot away.

Andreas Ivanschitz cleared a goalbound header from Emanuel Pogatetz before it was able to cross the line in the 26th minute, and he then provided the cross for Mainz’s opening goal a minute later.

Junior Diaz beat Naldo in the air and sent a looping header over Diego Benaglio, who was caught off his line.

Szalai made it two 10 minutes later when he volleyed in another cross from Ivanschitz to stun the home fans, who were still silent after the Mainz opener.

Wolfsburg continued to attack with Vieirinha sending a shot wide of the target and Pogatetz heading over from close range.

Ivica Olic squandered the best chance of the half midway through with a free header from close range, a miss which epitomised the Wolves’ problems.

The desire was clearly there, but the finish was not. Olic again only found the outside netting as the home side kept up their assault on the Mainz goal.

It was an assault which went unrewarded as the toothless Wolves succumbed once again to defeat at home, despite creating chances to win several games.

Udinese 0-0 Genoa

Udinese and Genoa picked up a point apiece in a goalless draw played at a pedestrian pace at the Stadio Friuli today.

The absence of Udinese’s star striker Antonio Di Natale was felt as Udinese struggled to create chances, even though they marginally had the better of the game.

Genoa created very few openings and appeared to settle for a draw right from the outset, and that is the result Gigi Di Canio’s side obtained to keep them in the top half of Serie A.

A difference of opinion between Udinese coach Francesco Guidolin and his club’s number one striker Di Natale led to the Italy international being excluded from the squad.

Guidolin instead kept his faith in Mathias Ranegie, who scored in the 2-1 win over AC Milan a week ago, but it was a less likely source that delivered the first moment of danger with defender Danilo heading onto the top of the crossbar from Andrea Lazzari’s corner in the second minute.

Ranegie and his striker partner Roberto Pereyra combined moments later as Udinese made a bright start to the game.

Pereyra’s cross in the 32nd minute was played back by Lazzari to Marco Faraoni, whose shot was deflected over the crossbar by Michele Canini.

The first time the visitors came close to the Udinese goal was five minutes from the end of the first half when Giampiero Pinzi’s clearance took a ricochet off Juraj Kucka which nearly looped in.

Diego Fabbrini had the first chance of the second half, but Sebastien Frey stretched to keep his shot out in the 52nd minute.

Zeljko Brkic was called into action practically for the first time in the 83rd minute when he made a save from Anselmo.

Pasquale sent Udinese’s last chance of the game over the crossbar in the 88th minute.

Atalanta 1-5 Torino

Torino took full advantage of a spectacular collapse from Atalanta to claim their first away win of the Serie A season.

German Denis ensured a steady start for the hosts before Rolando Bianchi equalised from the penalty spot before half-time.

Alessandro Gazzi, Alen Stefanovic and Danilo D’Ambrosio all notched after the break, Bianchi completing the rout with his fourth goal of the season to lift promoted Torino up to sixth place.

It appeared that the first half would belong to the Bergamo side as Denis tested Jean-Francois Gillet with a fierce shot within 10 minutes.

Andrea Consigli did well to keep out a daisy-cutter from Gazzi at the other end but Atalanta soon managed to take the lead their early verve merited.

In the 28th minute, Denis danced on to a cute pass from Riccardo Cazzola to twist his body and comfortably beat Gillet.

Having dominated for much of the early exchanges, and unaware of what was to follow, Atalanta might have felt aggrieved when Torino equalised 10 minutes later.

Giacomo Bonaventura was pulled up for handball in the hosts’ penalty box and Bianchi duly obliged from the spot.

Thomas Manfredini was withdrawn through injury shortly before the break but Colantuono was satisfied with his defence’s efforts.

That would all change over the course of a torrid second period, though, as Torino systematically and brutally dismantled their opponents.

Angelo Ogbonna cleared the danger when Gillet mishit a clearance to Atalanta’s Cristian Raimondi, with Giuseppe De Luca seeing his goal ruled offside, but the 45 minutes belonged to the visitors.

Gazzi nudged Giampiero Ventura’s men into the lead as he beat Consigli from a corner in the 63rd minute.

Stefanovic rifled the ball home from distance three minutes later, following good work from Alessio Cerci, and Torino made it 4-1 in the 73rd minute.

With Atalanta’s defence still in tatters, D’Ambrosio gratefully nodded past a stranded Consigli.

Bianchi completed Atalanta’s humiliation only three minutes later, the home back line nowhere to be seen as the former Manchester City striker found the back of the net with a low drive.

Bologna 4-0 Catania

Bologna rediscovered some of their early-season form with a comprehensive victory over 10-man Catania in Serie A this afternoon.

Without a win since their remarkable come-from-behind triumph at Roma, Stefano Pioli’s men were finding goals hard to come by, but Tiberio Guarente got the Rossoblu rolling once again with a cool first-half finish.

Alberto Gilardino made it five for the club he joined on loan from Genoa with a goal either side of the break with Panagiotis Kone completing the rout following Ciro Capuano’s late dismissal.

Bologna were on the back foot in the early exchanges, Guarente forced to clear a loose ball after home goalkeeper Gianluca Curci hesitated.

Lucas Castro beat the offside trap to find Curci stranded again but, fortunately for the hosts, the Argentinian blasted wide of the target.

Guarente launched Bologna into a lead they would never surrender in the 19th minute, calmly controlling Gilardino’s knockdown to beat Catania goalkeeper Mariano Andujar from outside the area.

Nicolas Spolli was soon forced to leave the pitch through injury but Catania rallied regardless, Castro nodding wide before Gonzalo Bergessio jinked past Mikael Antonsson.

Castro’s compatriot failed to hit the target and the visitors’ verve quickly faded away, Bologna steadily regaining control before doubling their lead in the 40th minute.

Defender Gyorgy Garics picked out Gilardino’s run from deep, the ex-Parma man beating the offside trap to slip the ball beyond Andujar.

Federico Agliardi was called into action in first-half stoppage time as Curci pulled up injured in his six-yard box and was unable to continue.

Catania looked for a quick response after the interval, Castro going close before Agliardi was called into action to push Francesco Lodi’s drive out for a corner.

But in the 61st minute Bologna struck again, Alessandro Diamanti bursting through the back line to tee up Gilardino for an easy header.

Capuano received his marching orders for a foul in the 83rd minute, and with only 10 men at his disposal, Rolando Maran knew a dramatic comeback was beyond his side’s means.

The Sicilians did well to weather the storm, though, and when Diamanti was denied a penalty three minutes into stoppage time it looked like Bologna were spent.

But Diamanti ensured a fourth goal of the day arrived eventually by feeding Kone for an easy tap-in just moments before the final whistle.

Cagliari 1-2 US Pescara

Cagliari’s recent woes continued as they slumped to a home defeat against Pescara at a scarcely-populated Stadio Is Arenas this afternoon.

Goals from Christian Terlizzi and Vladimir Weiss lifted Pescara to a second win in five days and heaped further misery on Cagliari, who replied late on through a Mauricio Pinilla penalty but also lost Luca Rossettini to a red card.

The Sardinian club’s start to the new season has been blighted by rows over the safety of their new stadium, and played today in front of around 5,000 season-ticket holders after being permitted to open just one section of the ground.

That was at least an improvement on previous home games this season, which were declared behind-closed-doors fixtures due to safety concerns.

Matters came to a head last weekend when Cagliari club president Massimo Cellino defied local authority orders by instructing fans to attend their home game with Roma.

As a result of Cellino’s announcement, the game was cancelled and a 3-0 walkover victory was awarded to Roma.

The ruling was followed by a 2-0 loss to AC Milan, with today’s result condemning Cagliari to a third defeat in a week and bottom spot in the Serie A standings.

The hosts had the best of what chances there were in a cagey first period today, with Victor Ibarbo and Marco Sau both firing just wide with the clearest openings, but all the drama was reserved for the second half.

The breakthrough arrived in the 49th minute when Terlizzi’s free-kick took a deflection off the defensive wall and nestled in the left corner of Michael Agazzi’s net.

Five minutes later Cagliari were in more trouble as Rossettini picked up a second yellow card following a bad foul on Weiss.

The Slovakian scored a wonder goal to secure Pescara a 1-0 win over Palermo on Wednesday and he was on target again in the 78th minute today as he turned home Matti Lund Nielsen’s low cross from close range to make it two.

The hosts were given a glimmer of hope in the 82nd minute when Terlizzi handled in the area to concede a penalty that Pinilla tucked away in the left corner, but Cagliari could not force an equaliser, with Ibarbo skewing wide with their final chance a minute into stoppage time.

Lazio 2-1 Siena

Lazio struck twice in the first half to record a victory which leaves them four points off the Serie A summit.

Cristian Ledesma set up the first for Ederson and then scored himself from the penalty spot to give the hosts a commanding half-time lead.

Siena more than played their part in an evenly-matched encounter, but Massimo Paci’s stoppage-time goal was all they had to show for their efforts and they remain in the bottom three after six games.

Paci carried their main threat and the defender tried his luck in the seventh minute, but his 25-yard effort was always rising.

Lazio’s breakthrough came from a set-piece as Ledesma’s corner was headed home from close range by Ederson.

Siena’s Francesco Valiani shot over before goalkeeper Gianluca Pegolo’s foul on Miroslav Klose allowed Ledesma to double his side’s lead from 12 yards.

Paci went close at the start of the second half and team-mate Reginaldo was also just off-target as Siena sought a way back into the game.

Lazio’s finishing was not up to their first-half standards, with Ledesma and Klose both a long way off-target.

Alessio Sestu drew a low save from Federico Marchetti before the hosts again failed to kill the game off, Antonio Candreva blazing an effort wildly over.

A Siena corner in the first additional minute led to Paci stabbing the ball home from close range, but it was nothing more than a glimmer of hope for his side as time ran out.