A late goal by substitute Benjamin Nivet helped promoted ES Troyes AC snatch a 1-0 home win on Sunday over Olympique de Marseille, who lost their place at the top of Ligue 1 to Paris Saint-Germain.
Nivet, who came off the bench at halftime, beat goalkeeper Steve Mandanda following a corner kick with two minutes to go to give his side their first victory of the season.
Marseille won their first six league matches, but have taken just one point from their last three.
“We did not do everything we had to. It is a good lesson,” Marseille defender Rod Fanni told French TV channel Canal+.
Nivet, who was playing his 250th Ligue 1 game, had an earlier opportunity 10 minutes after the break, but his header struck the woodwork.
Marseille, who lost striker Andre-Pierre Gignac because of a broken left foot after 23 minutes, had several efforts on target, but goalkeeper Yohann Thuram-Ulien denied Mathieu Valbuena’s curled free-kick and Charles Kabore’s powerful strike in the second half.
Earlier, Olympique Lyonnais moved up to third on 18 points behind Marseille with a 1-0 win over Stade Brestois 29 thanks to a fine lob by Bafetimbi Gomis.
Gomis scored a deserved goal for Lyon in the 57th minute when he lobbed goalkeeper Alexis Thebault from a neat Steed Malbranque pass.
The hosts dominated throughout the match, but struggled to hit the target, with a Jimmy Briand header striking the crossbar on 33 minutes, before Gomis earned them a deserved victory.
AC Ajaccio drew 0-0 home with SC Bastia in a tense Corsican derby marred by incidents on and off the pitch.
The two sides were reduced to 10 men after a mass brawl followed a tough challenge for the ball between Gael Angoula and Johan Cavalli, who were both dismissed seven minutes from time.
The referee had to stop the game for five minutes as the tension spread to the stands, where both sets of fans threw fireworks.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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