Olympique de Marseille snatched a point with a late equalizer to draw 1-1 at Toulouse in Ligue 1 on Saturday.
Bottom of the table with just two points, Toulouse seemed to be heading for their first win of the season after Wissam ben Yedder’s 66th-minute strike, but Lucas Mendes evaded his marker Uros Spajic to head home Mathieu Valbuena’s free-kick three minutes from time as Marseille avoided a second successive defeat.
Marseille, the runners-up last season, moved level with third-placed AS Monaco, who were due to host Lorient yesterday. The two teams are a point behind Paris Saint-Germain, who beat Girondins de Bordeaux 2-0 on Friday.
Photo: AFP
AS Saint-Etienne moved provisionally into top spot after cruising to a 3-1 win at Valenciennes.
Benjamin Corgnet scored in each half, either side of Romain Hamouma’s fine strike. Mevlut Erding also headed against the post for the visitors.
Valenciennes grabbed one back 12 minutes from time after Moustapha Bayal was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area and Maor Melikson converted the resulting spot-kick.
Also on Saturday, Stade de Reims drew 0-0 at Montpellier Herault, while Evian Thonon Gaillard won their second successive match, but almost let a comfortable lead slip before securing a 3-2 victory at AC Ajaccio.
Brice Dja Djedje gave Evian the lead at the end of the first half and a brace from Kevin Berigaud seemed to have handed the visitors the points, before Paul Lasne and Gadji Tallo scored late to set up a nervy final five minutes.
Newly promoted Nantes beat Sochaux-Montbeliard 1-0, with Filip Dordevic heading in Banel Nicolita’s free-kick 15 minutes from time.
Fellow promoted side En Avant de Guingamp drew 1-1 at home to SC Bastia, ruing a penalty miss.
Wahbi Khazri fired in a superb opener for SC Bastia shortly after halftime, but Guingamp leveled two minutes from time thanks to Mustapha Yatabare’s penalty after Christophe Mandanne was tripped in the penalty area by Drissa Diakite.
Guingamp had a great chance to snatch all three points when they were awarded another penalty in stoppage-time after Fethi Harek handled in the penalty area, but SC Bastia goalkeeper Mickael Landreau saved Yatabare’s spot-kick, with the Guingamp striker opting to again fire to the right.
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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