PARIS: Olympique de Marseille consolidated second place in Ligue 1 after goals by Bamba Dieng and Cengiz Under secured a routine 2-0 home win against Montpellier on Sunday.

Dieng and Under netted early in the first half to put OM, who were never in any trouble, on 59 points from 31 games.

They trail leaders Paris St Germain by 12 points a week before playing the capital side at the Parc des Princes.

Montpellier, who had goalkeeper Jonas Omlin sent off in the last minute, are 11th on 41 points with little to play for in the remaining seven matches.

It was a one-sided affair at the Stade Velodrome, where Dieng put the hosts in front after nine minutes by tapping the ball in from Amine Harit’s cross.

Dieng was then brought down in the area by Jordan Ferri and Under converted the penalty to double the tally in the 19th.

Montpellier never seemed in a position to get back into the contest and the game descended into a lull until Omlin picked up a straight red card for bringing down substitute Luis Henrique.

Stade Rennais are in third place on 56, three points behind Marseille while Racing Strasbourg are fourth a further four points behind after a 1-1 home draw with Olympique Lyonnais.

Nice’s hopes of a top-four finish suffered a blow when they lost their cool in a 3-0 defeat at RC Lens despite playing with an extra man for 40 minutes.

Lens were down to 10 men early in the match but scored twice through Arnaud Kalimuendo and Cheick Doucoure, before Nice had Mario Lemina sent off, conceded the third and had Dante red-carded in stoppage time.

The result left Nice fifth in the standings on 51 points while Lens moved to eighth on 47 points.

Monaco improved their prospects of European football next season with a 2-1 victory over Troyes courtesy of goals from Caio Henrique and Kevin Volland.

Nantes drew 1-1 at Brest following crowd trouble that held the game up for around 10 minutes in the second half.

At the other end of the table, Bordeaux ended an eight-match winless run by beating relegation rivals Metz 3-1 on Sunday to earn a first victory under coach David Guion and climb off the foot of the Ligue 1 table.

Bordeaux switched places with Metz in the bottom two and moved to within a point of St Etienne in the relegation play-off place.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2022