Marseille beat Monaco late, Saint-Etienne win big
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| AFP |
Marseille kept their UEFA Champions League hopes alive with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Monaco. Marcelo Bielsa's side were top of France's Ligue 1 heading into the new year break but it has been a major fall from grace since with Marseille sliding to fifth after a stunning 5-3 home defeat to Lorient two weeks ago.
But back-to-back wins over Metz and Monaco have revived their top-three hopes ahead of closing league games against Lille (away) and Bastia (home). The victory that took Marseille to within two points of third-placed Monaco was achieved in the most dramatic fashion after Joao Moutinho had given the visitors a first-minute lead. Andre Ayew levelled with little more than ten minutes left before Romain Alessandrini sent the Stade Velodrome wild by burying Dimitri Payet's cut-back three minutes from time.
Saint-Etienne hammered Nice 5-0 to take another step towards qualifying for European competition next season. There were five different goalscorers for Les Verts as Loic Perrin and Jeremy Clement netted in the first half before Mevlut Erding, Max Gradel and Kevin Monnet-Paquet added gloss to the scoreline.
Saint-Etienne are now fourth in Ligue 1 with two games to go - away to Evian and at home to Guingamp - while Nice remain 15th and need two points to secure Ligue 1 survival. But Nice's next game is at home to bottom club Lens and they will want to make sure of their survival before a final-day trip to Toulouse.
Montpellier kept alive their UEFA Europa League hopes with a 1-0 victory at Lens, who had Loic Landre sent off after 65 minutes for a second bookable offence. Anthony Mounier scored the all-important winner in second-half stoppage time just as bottom-placed Lens looked as if they would hold on for a point.
Mounier beat goalkeeper Valentin Belon with a clever chip after being freed on goal by the debut-making Ellyes Skhiri. The result means seventh-placed Montpellier are just three points behind Bordeaux, with the two sides due to face each other on the final day of the season in what could be a decider for a final European spot.