Toulouse 1 : 1 Saint-Etienne - Toulouse earn late draw

Posted Sunday, March 01, 2015 by PA

Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro clinched a late equaliser as Toulouse struck back to record a 1-1 Ligue 1 draw against St Etienne at Stadium Municipal on Saturday night.

Max Gradel put the visitors ahead with a penalty on the stroke of half-time but Akpa-Akpro netted a late leveller as Toulouse struck back for a share of the spoils, denying their opponents the chance of closing the gap on the top three.

The result leaves high-flying St Etienne fourth but still seven points behind third-placed Marseille, while the point sees Alain Casanova's hosts in the relegation zone after they dropped down a spot to sit seven points off the foot of the table.

The first half was dominated by the visitors for large periods and they came close to opening the scoring after just seven minutes of play.

Fabien Lemoine laid the ball off to Romain Hamouma in the middle and he raced toward the goal from the right, but his low shot was blocked by a diving Zacharie Boucher.

There was some great work from Hamouma deep into the first period as St Etienne pressed forward. Firstly he freed Lemoine just outside the 18-yard box and the midfielder picked out Landry N'Guemo who was denied after his close-range effort forced a decent save out of home stopper Boucher.

Then he took the ball down from the visitors' half for a great solo effort from 25 yards out which he sent sailing over the crossbar.

But their pressure finally paid off after 44 minutes as Uros Spajic was penalised for a foul on Hamouma in the box and Gradel made no mistake, firing the resulting spot-kick in the middle of the Toulouse net, slotting home just underneath the crossbar.

St Etienne started the second half brightest and Hamouma forced another decent save out of Boucher after 48 minutes.

The home side finally played their way into the game three minutes later as Martin Braithwaite got his head onto Dragos Grigore's dangerous cross into the box, but the ball brushed the post.

Christophe Galtier's men pushed for a second and almost got it just after the hour mark in another good collective move involving Kevin Theophile-Catherine, Hamouma and Gradel with the latter eventually firing inches wide.

Grigore retrieved the ball from the Saints defence midway through the second half and tried his luck from 30 yards with a heavy shot that forced Stephane Ruffier to a full-stretch save.

And their equaliser finally arrived with four minutes to spare as a good pass from Braithwaite found Pesic whose header landed by Akpa-Akpro 25 yards out and his right-footed volley beat Ruffier and handed the hosts a point.