PARIS: Olympique de Marseille further established themselves as the main threat to Paris St Germain in Ligue 1 with a 3-1 win over Girondins de Bordeaux on Sunday.

With their sixth consecutive league win, nine-time champions Marseille have 34 points from 17 games and trail leaders PSG, who beat Montpellier 3-1 on Saturday and have one game in hand, by five points.

Marseille, whose main aim this season is to qualify for the Champions League, have opened a six-point lead over third-placed Lille and are seven points ahead of fourth-placed Rennes. Bordeaux slipped to fifth on 26.

Trailing 1-0 at halftime, Andre Villas-Boas’ team rallied at the Velodrome Stadium with goals from Jordan Amavi and Morgan Sanson. Marseille’s last goal in stoppage time was given to Bordeaux’s Aurelien Tchouameni, who deflected a goal-bound shot from in-form Serb midfielder Nemanja Radonjic.

Bordeaux had gone ahead courtesy of a thunderous effort from Yacine Adli but looked disorganised after the break. Amavi levelled with a header from Dimitri Payet’s corner before Sanson scored with a 20 metre strike.

“At the break the coach told us to do more, to get the Velodrome right behind us,” said Sanson. “In the second half we were clearly the better team... thanks to the fans we woke up.”

Elsewhere, Ludovic Blas scored in the 73rd minute as Nantes beat Dijon 1-0 to move up to sixth on 26 points while St Etienne suffered their second defeat under coach Claude Puel when they lost 3-1 at Stade de Reims.

St Etienne are eighth on 25 points, one point and one spot ahead of Reims, after losing a tight contest to goals from Remi Oudin, Boulaye Dia and Moussa Doumbia.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2019