Soccer-Marseille miss out on chance to join PSG at top of Ligue 1

Olympique de Marseille missed out on a chance to join Paris St Germain at the top of Ligue 1 on Sunday after being held 1-1 at Stade Brest in the last of the weekend’s encounters. Marseille moved to four points alongside Racing Lens, Lille, Monaco and Toulouse while champions PSG, who beat Montpellier 5-2 on Saturday, are the only side with two wins and sit on top with six points.

Sunday’s clash between Lorient and Olympique Lyonnaise, both opening-weekend winners, was called off because of the poor state of the pitch at the Stade du Moustoir. Marseille, who brought on new signing Alexis Sanchez at half-time for his debut, were ahead after 38 minutes as another newcomer, Nuno Tavares, scored with a header but Pierre Lees-Melou’s equaliser was reward for Brest who might well have gone on to win the match.

Toulouse enjoyed their first win back in Ligue 1 after promotion with a 3-0 victory at Troyes while Racing Lens drew away at Ajaccio earlier on Sunday. Clermont came from two goals down to beat Stade Reims 4-2 and leave them bottom of the French league standings.

Nice, who gave Kasper Schmeichel his debut after signing the Danish goalkeeper from Leicester City, were held 1-1 at home by Racing Strasbourg. Auxerre, back in the top flight after a decade’s absence, were 2-0 up in 10 minutes against Angers through Julien Jeanvier and a Cedric Hountondji own goal but let their chance of a first win of the campaign slip as Lois Diony reduced the deficit and then, after Lassine Sinayoko was sent off, Amine Salama equalised 13 minutes from time.

Reims were awarded two first-half penalties, converted by Kamory Doumbia and Arsenal loanee Folarin Balogun, but imploded after the 47th-minute expulsion of centre back Emmanuel Agbadou. Komnen Andric netted a double for Clermont with a penalty and an unchallenged header to level the scores just past the hour and then new Austrian signing Muhammed-Cham Saracevic and Jeremie Bela completed the turnaround. Saif-Eddine Khaoui might have made it 5-2 in the last three minutes but had his strike disallowed for offside.

Toulouse continued their good start to the season by winning at Troyes, where Yasser Larouci scored a 36th-minute own goal to put the visitors into the lead and Rafael Ratao and Rhys Healey added second-half goals. (Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Clare Fallon)

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