Lorient and Evian share the points

Lorient and Evian shared the points in a 1-1 draw that does little to ease either side's Ligue 1 relegation jitters.

Lorient and Evian shared the points in a 1-1 draw that does little to ease either side's Ligue 1 relegation jitters. The hosts hit the front through Jeremie Aliadiere's sixth-minute strike but Evian pulled level with 20 minutes remaining through the impressive Daniel Wass. Evian, who earned a surprise win over second-placed Monaco last weekend, could and perhaps should have been celebrating all the points come the final whistle, with Nicolas Benezet and Wass both seeing efforts come back off the frame of the goal. As it is the point leaves Evian still looking anxiously over their shoulder, with a six-point gap between themselves and the bottom three, while Lorient are still not completely out of the woods, nine points from danger with six games left. The 1-0 win over Monaco put a spring in Evian's step this past week with their players talking confidently of their chances ahead of the trip to Lorient, and they looked set to back up their words in a bright opening during which Kevin Berigaud drilled an effort just inches over the bar . But Evian optimism was punctured when Lorient's first attack of note produced the opener, Kevin Monnet-Paquet picking out Vincent Aboubakar whose flick found the unmarked Aliadiere and the former Arsenal man kept his cool to head home. Lorient nearly increased their lead two minutes into the second period when Aliadiere touched the ball off to Alain Traore whose well-hit effort drew a good save from Jesper Hansen. But the remainder of the half belonged to Evian, the visitors pegging Lorient back for long spells and almost levelling in the 51st minute when Marco Ruben saw his overhead kick clawed away by Fabien Audard. Moments later it was the post to Lorient's rescue, this time Wass denied when his free-kick beat Audard but not the frame of the goal. But with 70 minutes gone the visitors had their reward, Kassim Abdallah crossing to the far post where the unmarked Wass arrived on cue to steer the ball home. Three minutes later Evian were almost celebrating a second, potentially match-winning goal, but Benezet's close-range volley from a Vass cross slammed against the crossbar.