Andre-Pierre Gignac scored from the penalty spot early in the second half for second-place Olympique de Marseille to beat Evian Thonon Gaillard 1-0 and keep the pressure on French league leader Olympique Lyonnais on Saturday.
The penalty was awarded in the 49th minute after veteran midfielder Cedric Barbosa barged into winger Dimitri Payet. France striker Gignac drove a low shot under the body of goalkeeper Benjamin Leroy for his 14th league goal.
Marseille wasted an early chance to go ahead when defender Brice Djadjedje missed the target with a free header in the 10th minute, after Gignac picked him out with a cross to the far post.
Gignac’s goal settled a tense match in which Payet was Marseille’s most impressive performer, and he went close shortly before the break with a rising drive from the right that just cleared the crossbar.
Midfielder Alaixys Romao missed the chance to make it 2-0 with 15 minutes remaining, blazing over from close range after Payet’s free kick caused confusion in Evian’s defense.
LOSC Lille Metropole could not bounce back after two consecutive losses and were held to 1-1 at Nantes.
The visitors opened the scoring in the first half after Kevin Koubemba’s pass in the back of a lethargic defense deflected into midfielder Jonathan Delaplace’s path. Delaplace fired home with a powerful strike from close range.
However, Oswaldo Vizcarrondo leveled 10 minutes from time with a header from a corner.
After an awful start to the season, SC Bastia continued on the road of recovery with a 1-1 draw at struggling Racing Club de Lens, extending their unbeaten league run to six matches.
Sixth-place Montpellier Herault were held to a goalless draw at Lorient; striker Aleksandar Pesic scored his fifth goal this season to give Toulouse a 1-0 win over Stade de Reims; and last-place Metz failed to win for an 11th straight league match in a 0-0 draw with OGC Nice.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later