An 89th-minute volley by Ligue 1 top scorer Olivier Giroud gave Montpellier Herault a 1-0 win at home to AS Saint-Etienne on Saturday that saw them move a point above Paris Saint-Germain at the league summit.
PSG will return to the top of the table if they beat Bordeaux, but Giroud’s last-gasp intervention enabled Rene Girard’s side to claim a first win in three games in all competitions and confirm their title aspirations.
Having been eliminated from the French Cup by third-tier Gazelec Ajaccio during the week, Montpellier saw their best efforts at goal thwarted by a succession of smart saves from Saint-Etienne goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier.
Photo: Reuters
However, the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Jean-Pascal Mignot saw red for a last-man foul on Remy Cabella and Giroud finally made the breakthrough at the death, lashing home a 20m volley for his 18th league goal this term.
Olympique de Marseille ended a club-record string of seven straight defeats with a 1-1 draw at Mediterranean rivals OGC Nice, ahead of the visit of in-form Bayern Munich for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday.
Their match began in calamitous fashion though, as Souleymane Diawara had to go off after only six minutes because of a knee injury and his replacement, Charles Kabore, was shown a red card before halftime for a high foul on Elliot Grandin.
It was nonetheless l’OM who made the breakthrough, with Andre Ayew crisply tucking away Cesar Azpilicueta’s cutback in the 56th minute to end a Ligue 1 goal drought stretching back to Dec. 2 last year.
However, their lead lasted less than 20 minutes, as Fabian Monzon drilled in a penalty to level the scores after Esmael Goncalves was tripped by Rod Fanni.
LOSC Lille Metropole held on to third place with a 3-0 win at Evian Thonon Gaillard that moved the defending champions to within seven points of the top, while Olympique Lyonnais climbed above Toulouse into fourth place by beating second-bottom Sochaux-Montbeliard 2-1.
Lyon, who face Marseille in the French League Cup final next month and meet Gazelec Ajaccio in the French Cup semi-finals, trail Lille by four points in the duel for the third and final Champions League place.
Stade Rennais’ European hopes were hit as they fell to a 1-0 loss at Valenciennes that left them seventh, while Lorient drew 1-1 at AC Ajaccio and AS Nancy-Lorraine further allayed their relegation fears with a 1-0 success at Stade Brestois 29.
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