Olympique de Marseille maintained their four-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 by defeating struggling Racing Club de Lens 2-1 on Sunday.
Marseille winger Florian Thauvin scored the winning goal with a shot into the top corner in the 60th minute.
Cameroon defender Nicolas Nkoulou powered home a header to give the hosts the lead in the 10th minute, before Lens forward Baptiste Guillaume equalized with a low strike in the 31st.
Photo: AFP
Marseille were down to 10 men in the 76th minute when midfielder Alaixys Romao picked up a second yellow card.
“We gave them some hope in the first half,” Marseille defender Rod Fanni said. “We made quite a few mistakes and helped them a little bit get back into the match.”
Elsewhere, Girondins de Bordeaux climbed to fourth place by edging Toulouse 2-1, while Nantes slipped to sixth by drawing 1-1 with Stade Rennais.
Photo: AFP
Marseille were looking to bounce back from two straight losses in all competitions and took the lead when Nkoulou headed home a corner from Thauvin.
However, Lens troubled the hosts by aggressively pressing high up the pitch. Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda punched away a long-range drive from Jerome Le Moigne in the 18th minute.
Romao was lucky to only receive a yellow card in the 23rd minute for holding Lens forward Pablo Chavarria, who was clean through on goal.
Lens capitalized on a counterattack to level when Guillaume cut inside Fanni to shoot past Mandanda.
Struggling to build attacks, Marseille relied on set-pieces to threaten. Thauvin met a corner from Dimitri Payet in the 38th minute, but his volley was cleared off the line by Lens midfielder Wylan Cyprien.
Marseille tightened their control over the game in the second half.
Andre-Pierre Gignac beat the offside trap to square the ball to Thauvin, who scored with a side-footed finish.
Lens put Marseille under pressure in the closing minutes following Romao’s sending off for a cynical foul on Cyprien, but Mandanda preserved the win in stoppage-time by denying Lens substitute Yoann Touzghar with his legs.
In Bordeaux, defender Marc Planus pounced on a free-kick to open the scoring from close range in the 53rd minute, before Uruguay forward Diego Rolan doubled the lead 10 minutes later by heading home a cross from Jaroslav Plasil.
Toulouse striker Aleksandar Pesic converted a cross from Martin Braithwaite to pull one back in the 68th minute.
At the Stade de la Beaujoire Louis-Fonteneau, Pedro Henrique scored his first goal in Ligue 1 to put Rennes ahead in the fourth minute. The Brazilian winger outpaced the Nantes defense to beat goalkeeper Remy Riou.
The hosts leveled in the 21st minute with an own-goal from Rennes defender Sylvain Armand, who headed in a free-kick from Nantes midfielder Jordan Veretout.
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