Marseille thrashed Nice 4-1 in the French league on Sunday to
remain in pole position for the title as rival Lyon dropped points.
Marseille tops the standings with 62 points, two clear of
Auxerre, which climbed to second place with a 1-0 victory over
Nancy.
Lyon lost ground in the title race by drawing 1-1 with Lille
to slip to third place with 58 points. Lille remained in sixth with
55.
Bakary Kone collected a through ball from Argentina
midfielder Lucho Gonzalez to open the scoring for Marseille in the
42nd minute with a low shot.
Kone sprained his knee and ankle in a tackle from behind by
Kafoumba Coulibaly. He had to be replaced in the 68th by Mamadou
Niang.
Stephane Mbia doubled the lead in the 52nd by heading in a
corner from Gonzalez before Niang played Mathieu Valbuena in with a
backheel flick for the winger to poke home in the 70th to make it
3-0.
Souleymane Diawara outjumped two Nice defenders to put the
result beyond doubt in the 74th, the centre back nodding in another
corner from Gonzalez.
Mamadou Bagayoko scored a consolation goal for Nice in
stoppage time.
"We had the right mindset against a team that was not easy to
handle and that did not concede a goal in its last four matches,"
Marseille coach Didier Deschamps said. "It was a great performance
to have scored four goals tonight."
Daniel Niculae scored Auxerre's late goal, the Romania
striker finishing off a counterattack by slotting past Nancy
goalkeeper Gennaro Bracigliano in the 87th.
Julien Quercia came close to adding a second goal for Auxerre
but hit the post two minutes later.
Nancy fell to 13th place with 42 points.
Pierre-Alain Frau put Lille ahead against Lyon in the 62nd
minute of a heated match with a strike that deflected off Jeremy
Toulalan and past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
Lille was reduced to 10 men eight minutes later when
Portuguese defender Ricardo Costa was sent off for picking up a
second yellow card.
Lyon immediately took advantage of its numerical superiority
as Brazilian defender Cris headed home a free kick from Sweden
midfielder Kim Kallstrom to equalize a minute later.
Lyon then had a player sent off, midfielder Maxime Gonalons
receiving a second yellow card in the 78th.
"We are disappointed," Lyon playmaker Miralem Pjanic said.
"We had the control of the match. We felt stronger than our
opponents tonight. It's a pity that we didn't take three points."
The title hopes of defending champion Bordeaux took a blow
when it lost 3-1 to mid-table Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday.
Bordeaux is in fifth place on 56 points.
Also Saturday, it was: Le Mans 2, Montpellier 2; Lorient 1,
Rennes 1; Monaco 2, Valenciennes 1; Toulouse 4, Grenoble 0; Sochaux
0, Saint-Etienne 2; Lens 3, Boulogne 0.
Grenoble was relegated to the second division with its
defeat.
