Marseille shackled by Nantes

A goal by Romanian Viorel Moldovan gave ten-man FC Nantes Atlantique a 1-1 draw against Olympique de Marseille as sixth place met seventh in Ligue 1 at the Vélodrome on Sunday.

Drogba strikes
The home side opened the scoring after 29 minutes when a cross by Matthieu Flamini was deflected by Steve Marlet and Didier Drogba slotted the ball past Mickael Landreau. Six minutes later Sylvain Armand was shown the red card after a late tackle on Marseille's Habib Beye and it seemed Marseille would coast to victory.

Moldovan reply
Moldovan had other ideas, pinching the ball from Marseille defender Philippe Christanval to score from just inside the box five minutes before the interval to set up an entertaining but goalless second half. The result left Marseille 12 points behind leaders AS Monaco FC, who beat Montpellier Hérault SC on Friday night.

Lucky 13
Paris Saint-Germain FC remain in third place, a point behind Olympique Lyonnais, after stretching their unbeaten record to 13 games with a 2-0 win against struggling EA Guingamp at Parc des Princes, where Modeste Mbami and Danijel Ljuboja were on target.

Strong Sochaux
In the weekend's other games, fifth-placed FC Sochaux Montbéliard won 2-0 away against RC Strasbourg and Stade Rennais FC chalked up a 4-1 win against AC Ajaccio to lift them two places to eleventh. Toulouse FC also won 2-0 on their travels, defeating FC Metz at the Saint-Symphorien while OGC Nice triumphed by the odd goal in three against Lille OSC. FC Girondins de Bordeaux's home game with RC Lens ended goalless, as did SC Bastia's encounter with AJ Auxerre.