By ,
Published January 13, 2015
Marseille, France (SportsNetwork.com) - Alejandro Bedoya's first-half goal held up as the winner on Friday as Nantes earned a 1-0 win over Marseille at the Stade Velodrome.
The hosts came out of the gate with the upper hand in the early portion of the match, but Nantes struck first against the run of play just 16 minutes into proceedings.
Filip Djordjevic got the scoring play started as he fed Bedoya with an excellent cutting ball behind the Marseille defense and the United States international made no mistake as he ripped it past Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda into the bottom left corner.
The visitors kept the home side at bay and took the one-goal margin into the locker room. Marseille continued to send numbers forward in search of an equalizer and had the better of the play.
Marseille kept 60 percent of possession and unleashed five shots on target, but Nantes goalkeeper Remy Riou's goal was never quite tested as the visitors came away with a huge three points.
The result lifts Nantes above Marseille into fourth place in Ligue 1 with 29 points, while Marseille drops to fifth on 27 points.
Defending Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain highlight the weekend's schedule as Les Parisiens will go for a bounce-back performance on Saturday bottom-of-the-table Sochaux. PSG was handed a shock first defeat of the campaign on Wednesday after Clarck Nsikulu and Modou Sougou gave Evian a 2-0 win.
The loss ended an impressive 26-match unbeaten run in league play and manmager Laurent Blanc lamented his team's wasted chances.
"If you want to analyze the match, you have to look at both halves. We didn't play well in the first half, but we created chances. If we had opened the scoring, it would have been a different match," Blanc said.
"We missed our chance. We could have done more to make things go our way, but we didn't. We were too average in the second half to win this match, we made too many mistakes. Based on the second half, Evian deserved their victory. We have to recover well and prepare for our match against Sochaux to get straight back to winning ways."
Defender Christophe Jallet echoed his manager's thoughts:
"We just lacked a little luck and the finishing touch in front of goal because we had enough chances in that first half. We couldn't open the scoring and that gave them hope. It's always tough against a side that sits deep and defends in front of their goal. You always have to bounce back immediately after a defeat. On Saturday we need to show that this was just an accident."
Lorient will aim for a third consecutive league win when the club hosts Rennes at the Stade du Moustoir. Goals from Maxime Barthelme and Vincent Aboubakar handed Lorient a 2-0 win over Montpellier in midweek.
After suffering a 3-1 loss to Rennes on Wednesday, St. Etienne will hope for a rebound performance on Saturday when Les Verts take on Evian at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
Also on Saturday, Reims battles Nice at the Stade Auguste Delaune II, while Valenciennes welcomes Guingamp to the Stade du Hainaut.
On Sunday, Second-place Lille aims for its fourth straight Ligue 1 victory when it battles Bordeaux at the Stade Chaban-Delmas, while third-place Monaco welcomes Ajaccio to the Stade Louis II.
Additionally on Sunday, Bastia battles Lyon at the Stade Armand-Cesari, while Toulouse hosts Montpellier.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/bedoya-sends-nantes-past-marseille