Paris St Germain suffered their first defeat of the season in any competition with Strasbourg ending the runaway leaders' aura of invincibility in Ligue 1 with a 2-1 victory at the Stade de la Meinau on Saturday. PSG, who had been expected to stretch their 10-point lead with some comfort at a club starting the day in 17th place, were on the end of a major shock as a 65th-minute goal from Stephane Bahoken ended their season-long, 22-match unbeaten sequence. Strasbourg had gone ahead through the inspirational Nuno Da Costa after 13 minutes but normal service seemed to have been resumed when Kylian Mbappe equalised three minutes before halftime. Despite having to soak up huge pressure after Bahoken again gave Strasbourg the lead, the newly-promoted side survived the onslaught for a famous win, the first by any team over PSG in the league this season after their 13 wins and two draws. The defeat gives PSG's distant pursuers fresh hope with Monaco aiming to narrow the gap to nine points in one of Saturday's later games at home to Angers while Olympique Marseille can get to within seven points by winning at Montpellier on Sunday. Even having rested their top scorer Edinson Cavani with an eye on Tuesday's Champions League match at Bayern Munich, PSG had the luxury of bringing back the talented Mbappe. Yet they were quickly rocked by the home side's physicality and Dimitri Lienard's free kick saw the excellent Cape Verdean Da Costa take advantage of lax marking to head home his fourth goal of the season. PSG were let down by poor finishing but Mbappe scored his fifth league goal of the campaign before Javier Pastore hit the post just before halftime. Yet with Unai Emery's men looking to forge ahead, Strasbourg hit them on the break, goalkeeper Bingourou Kamara's clearance being flicked on by Da Costa into the path of Bahoken, who smashed in a right-foot shot. From then on, the 25,000-strong crowd must have feared the fairytale would not last against Neymar and company, especially when Cavani was introduced for the last 15 minutes. When the Uruguayan did get his chance in the eighth of the nine minutes of added time with the Strasbourg goal under siege, the injured Kamara's replacement Alexandre Oukidja blocked Cavani's ricocheted effort after Adrien Rabiot's shot. Neymar was booked as PSG's frustration grew and he suffered his first defeat since his world-record transfer from Barcelona. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
