Olympique de Marseille failed to keep pace with Olympique Lyonnais at the top of Ligue 1 after succumbing to a 3-1 reverse at ten-man FC Sochaux-Montbéliard.

Lyon moved clear of fellow title hopefuls Paris Saint-Germain FC with their 2-1 success at ES Troyes AC on Saturday, but Marseille would have returned level with Rémi Garde's men had they taken all three points at Sochaux. It was not to be, however, as Sloan Privat headed in for the hosts from a corner on 18 minutes and Cédric Bakambu nodded in five minutes before the break.

That left OM with an uphill struggle after the restart, and their situation deteriorated almost immediately when Jérémy Morel turned a cross from Sébastien Roudet past his own goalkeeper Steve Mandanda. Jordan Ayew reduced the deficit from the edge of the area and Sochaux lost Joseph Lopy to a second yellow card shortly afterwards, but the visitors were unable to mount a comeback.

Elsewhere, OGC Nice moved up to fifth with a resounding 5-0 home success against Valenciennes FC. Renato Civelli, Didier Digard and Valentin Eysseric were all on target and Dario Cvitanić weighed in with his 11th and 12th goals of the season. Elsewhere, Stade de Reims' winless sequence stretched to 12 Ligue 1 matches after they lost 2-1 at home to SC Bastia.

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