Marseille, whose last league title came 18 seasons ago, moved second in the French table on Saturday, three points behind Bordeaux, as a second-half goal from Gabriel Heinze and a penalty from Taye Taiwo saw off struggling Boulogne.
The win took Marseille to 28 points from 15 games.
PHOTO: AFP
After struggling to break down well-drilled rivals in the opening period at an impatient Stade Velodrome, Marseille finally made the breakthrough when former Manchester United defender Heinze converted a near-post corner from Benoit Cheyrou three minutes after the interval.
The southerners made the game safe on 54 minutes when Damien Marcq fouled Argentine striker Lucho Gonzalez in the box to enable Nigerian Taiwo to convert the resulting spot-kick.
Boulogne ended the encounter a man down after Olubayo Adefemi was dismissed three minutes from time for an overly hefty tackle on Marseille midfield maestro Hatem Ben Arfa.
Marseille coach Didier Deschamps said he was satisfied to have beaten awkward rivals, who came in the hope of poaching a point.
“It was tough. They were very solid with nine men behind the ball, but we got the job done,” the former France skipper said.
“These teams are always tough to play against,” Ben Arfa said. “We had to be patient. We have put our Champions League elimination behind us and we are going to focus on the league.”
As the winter break draws ever closer the top half of the table is tight, with only seven points separating Bordeaux from 10th-placed Toulouse.
Auxerre are level on 27 points with Montpellier after a goalless draw with Lorient, who now sit above Lyon on goal difference.
Rennes also have 26 points after a 2-1 win at Nancy, secured when Sylvain Marveaux scored a second-half winner.
Lens, champions in 1998, benefited from that result to move ahead of Nancy into mid-table after Kanga Akale and Toifilou Maoulida scored in a 2-0 home win over Nice, who the hosts likewise leapfrogged.
Any hopes that Valenciennes harbored of edging a point ahead of Marseille were dashed when the northern club went down 2-1 at Le Mans, who remain in the drop zone.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB