Djiku and Waris feature as Strasbourg lose to nine-man Monaco

Majeed Waris and Aleksander Djiku were on display for Strasbourg on Sunday, but both men ended on the losing side of a 3-2 defeat by Monaco, who had two players sent off.

Both men have featured in every game for Le Racing this season but it has not been going well for the team. They had suffered defeats to Lorient, OGC Nice and Saint-Etienne, the streak finally ending with a 1-0 win at home to Dijon last time out.

That victory was only temporary relief as Monaco took a 2-0 lead in the first half on Sunday, first from a ninth-minute Wissam Ben Yedder strike, after the France striker of Tunisian descent combined with new recruit Kevin Volland.

That was followed by Ruben Aguilar’s effort in added time, the assist coming from Franco-Malian defender Fode Ballo-Toure.

Franco-Moroccan midfielder Mehdi Chahiri pulled one back for Strasbourg at the restart, latching onto a loose ball from Reunionese-Malagasy forward Ludovic Ajorque.

It, however, didn’t take long for Monaco to extend their lead and it came through Ben Yedder again and his partnership with Volland.

It soon turned to be a bad spell for Les Rouges et Blanc as they had two players sent off in the space of 13 minutes.

First was Franco-Cameroonian midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni in the 55th minute for a second bookable offence while Franco-Congolese defender Axel Disasi was given a straight red card for a professional foul which resulted in a penalty.

After a long consultation with VAR, the referee’s decision was upheld and Ajorque scored the resultant penalty to give Strasbourg some hope.

Waris was taken off at the start of the second half for Dimitri Lienard and had 100% success in his dribbles, 26 touches, 10 accurate passes at 77% and won five of eight total duels before coming off.

Djiku, meanwhile, played for 61 minutes having 23 touches, eight accurate passes at 80%, 100% accuracy in his total duels (eight from eight) and making two clearances, two interceptions and three tackles.

The 26-year-old, who was born in the French city of Montpellier to Ghanaian parents, was recently called up to the Black Stars squad for the first time ahead of their friendly against Mali on October 9.

Strasbourg next host Lille at Stade de la Meinau on October 4.