Monaco punish Marseille

Monaco punish Marseille

Marseille suffered a painful second defeat of the Ligue 1 season as Monaco and their inspired goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier rocked the Stade Velodrome on Sunday night.

First-half goals from Nene and Park Chu-Young gave Monaco a princely lead but it was almost all Marseille after the interval, and they would have turned around the match were it not for Ruffier's brilliance.

Marseille did get a consolation when Mamadou Niang netted with five minutes remaining but they could not force a leveller.

Pierre-Alain Frau's double enabled Lille to come from behind and record a 3-2 victory over Boulogne which moves them out of the relegation zone.

Gervinho bagged Lille's other goal as their first away success of the season moved them above Laurent Guyot's side, who had twice led Les Dogues through strikes from Bira Dembele and Jeremy Blayac.

Olivier Monterrubio kept his nerve to score a last-minute penalty and hand injury-ridden Lorient a surprise 1-0 win at Toulouse.

The visitors, without Marama Vahirua, Jeremy Morel, Kevin Gameiro, Antoine Buron, Yaya Diane, Alban Joinel, Yann Jouffre and Yazid Mansouri through injury and the suspended Morgan Amalfitano, were well organised and just about deserved their late winner.

Etienne Didot handled inside the area and Monterrubio converted from the spot even though home goalkeeper Yohann Pele got a strong hand to the ball.

On Saturday, Lyon had gone top of the table with a 2-0 win at Lens after Bordeaux suffered a surprise defeat to St Etienne.

Sidney Govou gave Lyon the lead after seven minutes and Lens missed a golden opportunity to draw level on 36 minutes when Yohan Demont failed to convert from the penalty spot.

Kim Kallstrom sealed the win for the visitors 12 minutes from time.

Bordeaux's 22-match unbeaten run had earlier come to an end at St Etienne.

Augusto Fernandez gave his side the perfect start and Araujo Ilan doubled St Etienne's lead on the half hour mark.

Jussie pulled one back from the spot for the French champions in the 69th minute but St Etienne held on before Dimitri Payet sealed the result in stoppage time.

Rennes paid a heavy price for the dismissal of Carlos Bocanegra as they went down to a home defeat at the hands of Auxerre.

Bocanegra was sent off after just 15 minutes for pulling back Dennis Oliech when he was judged to be the last defender.

And if that was not punishment enough, Benoit Pedretti curled the resulting free-kick into the bottom corner to give the visitors a lead they would never relinquish.

Nice fought back from two goals down to pick up a valuable three points against 10-man Valenciennes.

The visitors established a comfortable lead thanks to Mamadou Samassa's penalty and Carlos Sanchez's strike either side of half-time.

But when Chaouki Ben Saada pulled one back and Renaud Cohade was sent off in the 71st minute, Nice grew in confidence and Olivier Echouafni levelled moments later.

Samassa headed in the winner four minutes later.

Paris St Germain played out their third successive draw in Ligue 1 as Nancy left the Parc des Princes with a share of the points.

The visitors went ahead thanks to Youssouf Hadji's goal, but that was quickly wiped out by Stephane Sessegnon.

Marvin Martin popped up with a vital late goal as Sochaux defeated fellow strugglers Le Mans.

It looked like they may have missed their chance when Vaclav Sverkos saw his 63rd-minute penalty saved following a handball by Guillaume Loriot, who was shown a second yellow card.

But Martin tucked away a 78th-minute shot to give Sochaux a precious three points.

Grenoble are still without a point after losing 3-2 at home to Montpellier.

Two goals by Nenad Dzodic and an early strike from Victor Hugo Montano did the damage, with Danijel Ljuboja and Nicolas Dieuze - in injury time - scoring for the home side.