A pair of goalkeeping clangers saw Lille held to a 1-1 draw at Valenciennes on Sunday, as torrential rain brought serious disruption to the Ligue 1 fixtures.
Olympique de Marseille’s match at home to Stade Rennais and Girondins de Bordeaux’s trip to Monaco both fell victim to torrential rain, while the northern derby at Stade Nungesser looked destined for a goalless conclusion until two late moments of misfortune.
Lille broke the deadlock in the 86th minute when top scorer Moussa Sow’s rising shot hit the crossbar and struck home goalkeeper Nicolas Penneteau on the back, before bouncing over the line for an own-goal.
Victory would have taken Rudi Garcia’s men up to sixth, but barely a minute later Valenciennes drew level when Lille goalkeeper Mickael Landreau let a free-kick spring from his hands and Gregory Pujol slid in to volley home.
Sow could even have won the game in stoppage-time, but his gentle header came back off the left-hand post with the advancing Penneteau beaten.
Lille, who finished fourth last season, climb to eighth in the table, while Valenciennes leap five places to 11th.
The Marseille-Rennes match, originally scheduled to take place on Saturday evening, was initially postponed until 5pm on Sunday. However, a pitch inspection on Sunday afternoon found that the pitch at the Stade Velodrome was still waterlogged.
“In the interests of precaution, the safety of the players is of primary importance,” match referee Fredy Fautrel said.
With torrential rain widespread across southern France, Monaco’s home game with Bordeaux was also called off after the Stade Louis II pitch was deemed unplayable.
Rennes went into the weekend with a one-point lead over Marseille at the top of Ligue 1, but Brest’s 2-0 victory at home to Saint-Etienne on Saturday allowed them to go two points clear at the top of the standings.
Montpellier squandered the chance to move up to second after they were held to a draw by visiting Paris Saint-Germain in Sunday’s late game.
PSG forward Ludovic Giuly opened the scoring shortly before halftime, but Montpellier were back on level terms five minutes later thanks to Marco Estrada.
It left Montpellier in sixth spot, still one place and two points better off than PSG.
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