Benoit Cheyrou scored a late equalizer to earn Marseille a 1-1 draw
away to French leader Bordeaux on Sunday.
Referee Laurent Duhamel awarded the opening goal for Bordeaux
in the closing stages of the first half when Bordeaux striker
Marouane Chamakh appeared to foul Steve Mandanda as the Marseille
goalkeeper fumbled the ball into the net.
In the second half, Duhamel sent off Bordeaux defender Marc
Planus for a foul even though he was not the last defender and
Bordeaux struggled to contain Marseille with 10 players for the
last 30 minutes.
Cheyrou leveled with 10 minutes left as Bordeaux tired.
Marseille moved above Lyon and into fourth place but remains
11 points behind defending champion Bordeaux, which leads the
league by seven points ahead of second-place Lille. After 20
rounds, Bordeaux has 44 points and Lille has 37.
Marseille has not won at Bordeaux since 1977 and looked to be
heading toward another defeat when Bordeaux took the lead at the
end of a scrappy first half of little invention and even fewer
chances.
Chamakh rose to meet Ciani's cross from the right and
Mandanda fumbled the ball into the net.
Marseille's players claimed that Chamakh had fouled Mandanda
by backing into him, and angrily surrounded referee Duhamel as
Marseille coach Didier Deschamps argued with the fourth official.
"I'm not going to go up to the linesman and ask him if it's a
goal. If it's given, it's given," Chamakh said.
But Deschamps was furious with Duhamel.
"It's a shame that, at this level, we can still see this.
It's infuriating and hard to swallow," Deschamps said. "We had a
lot of chances at the end, even if we are happy to take a point."
Early in the second half, Bordeaux goalkeeper Cedric Carrasso
limped off after appearing to hurt his right calf and was replaced
by veteran Ulrich Rame.
Marseille was given hope when Planus was sent off by Duhamel
in the 61st minute for hacking down Niang on the edge of the
penalty area.
"The red card hurt us, they brought some attackers on and
they pushed hard," Ciani said.
Marseille equalized in the 80th minute when striker Brandao
outjumped Ciani in the air and headed the ball to Cheyrou, who
controlled it superbly on his chest before volleying past Rame.
Bordeaux was lucky to hold on for a draw as Marseille
attacked strongly.
Substitute Mathieu Valbuena struck his curling shot just wide
of the post.
Hatem Ben Arfa, Marseille's other substitute, jinked into the
penalty area down the right and pulled the ball back to Niang,
whose shot was blocked by Ludovic Sane in the 89th.
In Saturday's games, it was: Lille 3, Paris Saint-Germain 1;
Montpellier 1, Nice 0; Auxerre 0, Boulogne 0; Nancy 0, Lyon 2;
Monaco 2, Sochaux 0; Le Mans 0, Lorient 3; Rennes 1, Lens 1;
Valenciennes 1, Toulouse 3; Grenoble 1, Saint-Etienne 2.
