PARIS: Girondins de Bordeaux were reduced to 10 men early on but still salvaged a point in a lacklustre 0-0 home draw against Nantes in the first game of the 2020-2021 Ligue 1 season on Friday.

The game, initially scheduled on Saturday, had been brought forward by the French League after the Olympique de Marseille-St Etienne match was postponed following four cases of coronavirus in the Provence side.

Marseille found a fifth asymptomatic case of coronavirus in their squad on Friday as the new season kicked-off under an increasingly darkening Covid-19 cloud. Hours later, St Etienne said one of their players had also tested positive.

The 2019-20 Ligue 1 season was cancelled in March amid the Covid-19 crisis and a new season resumed with fewer than the maximum 5,000 fans allowed turning up at the Matmut Atlantique.

Bordeaux have now failed to win any of their last eight league outings as they got off to a sluggish start under new coach Jean-Louis Gasset.

Nantes dominated for the most part after the 20-year-old Mehdi Zerkane, making his Ligue 1 debut, was shown a straight red card for a rough challenge on Nicolas Pallois.

But they lacked inspiration throughout and Bordeaux held firm, led by centre back Laurent Koscielny.

Defending champion Paris St Germain and Olympique Lyonnais are not playing this weekend, because they were involved in Champions League games this week.PSG takes on Bayern Munich in Sunday’s final while Lyon lost 3-0 in the semi-finals to Bayern on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2020