PARIS: Olympique de Marseille remained firmly in the race for second place in Ligue 1 when Florian Thauvin’s first-half goal gave them a 1-0 home win against Bordeaux on Sunday.

Midfielder Thauvin headed home from Dimitri Payet’s corner in the 34th minute to put third-placed Marseille on 55 points from 26 games.

Monaco are second on 56 after thrashing Dijon 4-0 on Friday, 12 points behind runaway leaders Paris St Germain who beat Stras­bourg 5-2 on Saturday.

Earlier on Sunday, fourth-placed side Olympique Lyonnais lost touch in the race for second after they squandered a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw at Lille.

Burkina Faso striker Bertrand Traore struck twice before the break, but the hosts fought back with goals by Nicolas Pepe and Luiz Araujo to salvage a point.

The result put Lyon on 49 points from 26 games.

Lille dominated possession but Lyon were the more clinical as they went ahead in the 21st minute when Traore tapped in after keeper Mike Maignan had released a Memphis Depay cross into his path.

Traore found the back of the net again one minute from the break with a shot on the turn inside the area. He came close again in stoppage time with a curled effort that flew just wide of the top corner.

Lille, who are 17th on 27 points, reduced the arrears on 65 minutes, Pepe firing home from Araujo’s cross.

He returned the favour by setting up Araujo, who beat Anthony Lopes with a fierce shot from 25 metres nine minutes from time.

Current standings

(Tabulated under: played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points)

PSG 26 22 2 2 81 19 68

Monaco 26 17 5 4 64 26 56

Marseille 26 16 7 3 56 29 55

Lyon 26 14 7 5 56 32 49

Nantes 26 11 6 9 27 27 39

Montpellier 26 9 11 6 24 21 38

Rennes 26 10 5 11 32 35 35

Bordeaux 26 10 5 11 32 35 35

Nice 26 10 5 11 32 38 35

Guingamp 26 9 7 10 26 33 34

Saint-Etienne 26 9 6 11 27 40 33

Caen 26 9 5 12 20 30 32

Dijon 25 9 4 12 36 52 31

Strasbourg 26 8 6 12 32 47 30

Troyes 25 8 3 14 24 34 27

Toulouse 26 7 6 13 22 33 27

Lille 26 7 6 13 25 41 27

Amiens 26 7 5 14 22 30 26

Angers 26 5 10 11 27 39 25

Metz 26 5 3 18 23 47 18

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018