Marseille breaks into top five with Rennes draw

Rennes, France (SportsNetwork.com) - Marseille broke into the top five in Ligue 1 on Saturday after earning a 1-1 draw with Rennes at the Stade de la Route de Lorient.

Coming off a defeat to Reims in league play last weekend and a 2-1 setback against Serie A side Napoli in Champions League play, the side came into Saturday's matching hoping to build some positive momentum.

But it was the home side the opened the scoring through a goal from Nelson Oliveira just nine minutes into proceedings.

Marseille battled back and found its equalizer just seven minutes later through Jordan Ayew. Following the goal, there wasn't much in it as the sides traded scoring chances, but the best chance came in the 75th minute when Kadir was taken down in the box by Marseille's Kassim Abdallah, resulting in a penalty kick.

Oliveira stepped up with a chance to put his side in front again, but his strike toward the bottom left corner was stopped by Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda to rescue a point for his club.

The result sees Marseille up to fifth on 18 points, while Rennes moves to eighth with 17 points.

Elsewhere in Ligue 1 on Saturday, Valenciennes earned its second win of the campaign following a 3-1 victory over Ajaccio behind a brace from Gregory Pujol and a third tally by Mathieu Dossevi.

Cedric Mongongu's penalty in stoppage time proved to be the winner at the Parc des Sports as Evian came away with a 2-1 result against Toulouse, while Lyon received goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Bafetimbi Gomis less than a minute apart in a 2-0 win over 10-man Guingamp.

Reims raced out to a quick two-goal lead over Bastia at the Stade Auguste Delaune II behind goals from Nicolas de Preville and Grzegorz Krychowiak and rolled to an eventual 4-2 victory.

Saturday's final Ligue 1 fixture saw Sochaux and St Etienne trade red cards as the clubs played to a scoreless draw.