PARIS: Olympique de Marseille’s poor run continued as they were held to a 1-1 Ligue 1 draw by fellow strugglers AS Monaco in a tense atmosphere at the Stade Velodrome on Sunday.

“Officials, coach, players, you are the shame of Marseille,” a banner read in the South curve of the stadium after OM were knocked out of the French Cup by fourth division Andrezieux a week ago.

Marseille are ninth in the standings on 28 points, five points below third place, but they have not won in their last eight games in all competitions and were repeatedly jeered by their fans.

Monaco, fielding new signing Cesc Fabregas two days after the Spanish midfielder joined from Chelsea, lie second bottom on 14 points as coach Thierry Henry struggles to make an impact.

Marseille went ahead in the 13th minute when Maxime Lopez found the back of the net with a 20-metre shot after Kamil Glick had cleared the ball into his path.

Monaco levelled seven minutes before halftime as Youri Tielemans beat Steve Mandanda with an angled shot from just inside the area.

Marseille thought they would be taking all three points when Florian Thauvin netted 20 minutes from time but the goal was ruled out by the VAR for a foul on keeper Diego Benaglio.

Fifth-placed Montpellier missed out on climbing to third after being held 1-1 at Dijon earlier on Sunday.

Defender Damien Le Tallec earned a point for Montpellier with a 61st-minute equaliser, shortly after striker Wesley Said put 18th-placed Dijon ahead in new coach Antoine Kombouare’s first game in charge.

Montpellier’s draw leaves them two points ahead of sixth-placed Strasbourg, who have played a game more.

Strasbourg kept their consistent start to the season with a 2-1 win at Toulouse. Midfielder Ibrahima Sissoko grabbed the winner midway through the second half.

Defender Damien Da Silva scored the winner as seventh-placed Rennes won 1-0 at Nantes.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2019