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.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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