Football
19y

Soccer-Marseille fail to break PSG jinx with 1-1 draw

By Jean-Francois Rosnoblet

MARSEILLE, April 3 - Olympique Marseille's
miserable run against fierce rivals Paris Saint-Germain
continued on Sunday when they could only manage a 1-1 home draw.

They have now failed to beat PSG in any of their last nine
meetings, including eight defeats.

Marseille, needing a win to reclaim second spot from Lille,
fell behind just after halftime when Japanese fullback Koji
Nakata left goalkeeper Fabien Barthez stranded when he diverted
a cross from Serbian striker Danijel Ljuboja into his own net.

The home side pushed hard for an equaliser and Laurent
Battles levelled 15 minutes from time, taking advantage of a bad
clearance from PSG's captain Jose Pierre-Fanfan.

Olympique Lyon beat Racing Lens 1-0 on Saturday and now lead
the table by 13 points as they prepare for their Champions
League quarter-final first leg against PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday.

Lille ended a run of eight matches without a win in style
with an 8-0 victory over bottom club Istres on Saturday -- Matt
Moussilou scoring four goals, including a four-minute hat-trick.

Lille and Marseille both 52 points, with Lille ahead by
virtue of a better goal difference. Lyon have 65 points.

Last season's Champions League finalists Monaco slipped to
fourth place on 50 points after crashing 3-0 at lowly AC
Ajaccio.

Auxerre, who travel to CSKA Moscow for the first leg of
their UEFA Cup quarter-final on Thursday, and Toulouse are fifth
and sixth after defeating Nantes 2-1 and Metz 1-0 respectively.

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