PARIS: Olympique de Marseille kept their remote hopes of qualifying for next seasons Champions League alive with a 3-1 Ligue 1 win at En Avant Guingamp on Saturday.

Marseille took less than four minutes to take the lead as Dimitri Payet’s right-wing cross fell kindly for Luiz Gustavo to lash the ball into the net from close range.

The visitors’ second goal was gifted to them by the hapless home defence five minutes before half-time, as Lucas Ocampos drifted into the box totally unmarked to send a header bouncing past goalkeeper Marc-Aurele Caillard from Florian Thauvin’s ball across the middle.

Guingamp were in desperate need of points to boost their survival bid, and half-time substitute Yeni Atito N’Gbakoto halved the deficit 11 minutes after the restart.

But Marseille wrapped up a second straight win in injury-time as Valere Ger­main lashed an excellent volley in off the crossbar.

They trail third-placed Olympique Lyonnais by five points with five games left.

The top three qualify for the Champions League with the third-placed team having to go through the third qualifying round of Euro­pe’s elite club competition.

After this weekend, there are five rounds remaining, including Marseille at home to Lyon on May 12.

Guingamp are bottom on 24 points, eight from safety, after Caen leapfrogged them with a 1-0 win at eighth-place Nice.

Forward Josh Maja scored his first goal for Girondins Bordeaux since joining in January from third-tier English side Sunderland , but it wasn’t enough as ninth-place Nimes rallied to win 2-1.

Striker Andy Delort netted once in each half as sixth-place Montpellier won 3-1 at Strasbourg, reaching a career-high tally of 13 league goals in the first division in the process.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2019