PARIS: Olympique Marseille came from behind to win 3-2 at AS Monaco with a last-gasp goal from Valere Germain on Sunday, ending a dismal run against their main Ligue 1 rivals under coach Rudi Garcia.

Konstantinos Mitroglou kissed Dimitri Payet’s right boot after his superb cross allowed the Greek to give Marseille the advantage right on half-time at the Stade Louis II.

But Monaco replied with two quickfire goals after the break. Youri Tielemans equalised on 48 minutes before World Cup winner Adil Rami, watched by US actress girlfriend Pamela Anderson, failed to clear properly and Radamel Falcao gobbled up the loose ball to smash a shot into the roof of the net and put the home side ahead.

Substitute Florian Thauvin coolly turned a low cross from Hiroki Sakai to equalise before Germain headed in from a corner to win the game against his former club in the 89th minute. Germain spent six seasons at Monaco before joining Marseille last year.

Rami joked that his error “had made a match of it, all on my own”. “I am going to get down to work, I need to show a better side of myself,” he said.

Marseille had not won any of their previous 11 matches against the trio of Paris St Germain, Olympique Lyonnais or Monaco with three draws and eight defeats since Garcia took over in October 2016.

PSG are top with a maximum 12 points from four games. Marseille are fifth with seven points while Monaco have four.

Two early goals from Benjamin Andre and Ramy Bensebaini, both headers, gave sixth-placed Rennes a 2-0 win at home to Girondins Bordeaux, still under caretaker coach Eric Bedouet.

Bedouet remained in charge after talks to hire former France forward Thierry Henry as coach broke down early this week, according to L’Equipe.

Also on Sunday, St Etienne drew 0-0 at home to Amiens.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2018