Marseille grab last-gasp equaliser to draw with Nantes

Olympique Marseille snatched an equaliser five minutes into stoppage-time to draw 1-1 at home to Nantes in Ligue 1 on Sunday and avoid a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions. Florian Thauvin bundled the ball into the net in a goalmouth melee following a corner after Nantes had taken the lead early in the first half through Leo Dubois, who beat Steve Mandanda with a right-foot shot from Valentin Rongier’s cut-back.

.@FlorianThauvin scores in the 9️⃣5️⃣th minute as @OM_English snatch a 1-1 draw against #Nantes!
Read the #OMFCN report HERE ?https://t.co/UF4b32UM7d pic.twitter.com/hFXnCUCrEn

— Ligue1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) March 4, 2018

Nantes defender Nicolas Pallois was sent off after a second booking for dissent immediately after the equaliser for protesting that he had been fouled by Marseille’s Luis Gustavo. Marseille, who enjoyed more possession but squandered a string of chances, notably three by France international Dimitri Payet, remained third in the standings on 56 points from 28 matches. They are four points behind second-placed Monaco and 18 adrift of leaders Paris St Germain, who won 2-0 at Troyes on Saturday.

.@FlorianThauvin has 1️⃣5️⃣ goals and 1️⃣0️⃣ assists for @OM_English in #Ligue1Conforama this season.
Should he start for #France this summer?#OMFCN pic.twitter.com/EWuGQU5nfr

— Ligue1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) March 4, 2018

Fourth-placed Olympique Lyonnais were also held to a 1-1 draw at Montpellier and remained five points behind Marseille in the race for Champions League berths. Lyon have gone six league matches without a win since their 2-1 victory over PSG in January. On a pitch at La Mosson in a sorry state because of heavy rain that made good football difficult, Isaac Mbenza opened the scoring for Montpellier in the seventh minute and striker Mariano Diaz equalised in the 58th.RESULTS:Caen 2 (Crivelli 43, Guilbert 87) Strasbourg 0Montpellier 1 (Mbenza 7) Lyon 1 (Diaz 58)Marseille 1 (Thauvin 90+5) Nantes 1 (Dubois 11)Ligue 1 table after Sunday's matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):PSG              28 24  2  2 86 19 74Monaco           28 18  6  4 69 30 60Marseille        28 16  8  4 57 33 56Lyon             28 14  9  5 58 34 51Rennes           28 12  5 11 36 35 41Montpellier      28  9 13  6 25 22 40Nantes           28 11  7 10 28 29 40Nice             28 11  6 11 34 39 39Bordeaux         28 10  6 12 33 37 36Dijon            28 10  6 12 40 54 36Guingamp         28  9  8 11 28 38 35Caen             28 10  5 13 22 32 35Saint-Etienne    28  9  8 11 30 43 35Angers           28  7 10 11 32 40 31Strasbourg       28  8  7 13 32 49 31Amiens           28  8  5 15 23 32 29Toulouse         28  7  8 13 26 37 29Troyes           28  8  4 16 24 38 28Lille            28  7  6 15 27 45 27Metz             28  5  5 18 26 50 20