PARIS: Defending champions Monaco dropped more points after drawing 1-1 at Amiens in the Ligue 1 on Friday.

It could have been worse for second-place Monaco after forward Serge Gakpe gave promoted Amiens the lead in the 31st minute, but Montenegro forward Stevan Jovetic equalised midway through the second half after being set up by Brazil midfielder Fabinho.

Radamel Falcao returned to the Monaco side after a spell out with a hamstring injury, but the Colombia striker had a quiet game and rarely looked like adding to his league-leading 13 goals.

Monaco were thankful for Fabinho’s fine piece of skill down the right flank as he skipped past three players before cutting the ball back to Jovetic, who swept the ball inside the left post from just inside the penalty area.

In Friday’s other match, Lille beat St Etienne 3-1 to give under-pressure coach Marcelo Bielsa a second straight win.

St Etienne lost 5-0 at home to Lyon in the last round of games, leading to Spanish coach Oscar Garcia resigning after just five months in charge. Former St Etienne midfielder Julien Sable replaced him and took charge of his first game.

Striker Nicolas Pepe made it three goals in two games when he put Lille ahead in the 20th minute.

After forward Jonathan Bamba equalised for the visitors with a penalty on the stroke of halftime, Brazilian midfielder Thiago Mendes made it 2-1 in the 71st and Spanish forward Ezequiel Ponce wrapped up the win late on.

Lille moved out of the relegation zone and up to 16th place, while St Etienne are sixth ahead of this weekend’s remaining games.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2017