Derby joy for Marseille

Marseille saw off Montpellier 2-0 in the derby of the south to remain on the heels of Ligue 1's leading trio.

Marseille saw off Montpellier 2-0 in the derby of the south to remain on the heels of Ligue 1's leading trio. Florian Thauvin opened the scoring 10 minutes before half-time and Saber Khalifa added a second goal at the death for OM, who are two points behind Monaco and three behind second-placed Lille with the rest of the weekend's fixtures to come. They were good value for their win and the points could have been wrapped up earlier but for a good performance from visiting keeper Geoffrey Jourdren. The hosts took around 20 minutes to hit their stride, though, and could have fallen behind early on when Remy Cabella picked out Victor Montno, but the Colombian fired just wide. Thauvin had Marseille's first chance when he latched on to Dimitri Payet's pass but was denied by an outstanding point-blank save by Jourdren. The keeper made another save from Mathieu Valbuena's free-kick but could do nothing in the 35th minute when Payet flicked on Kassim Abdallah's cross and summer signing Thauvin arrived on cue to score his fourth goal in five games. Another free-kick, this time from Andre-Pierre Gignac, tested Jourdren as the first half ended with OM firmly on the front foot. The second half followed a similar pattern, with Marseille starting slowly and Montpellier threatening through Cabella, but he shot into the side netting after beating Benjamin Mendy. Jourdren made another excellent save, denying Gignac at full stretch, before his opposite number Steve Mandanda was forced into his only serious action of the match when he saved Siaka Tiene's free-kick. That was as dangerous as it got for the home side though, and they extended their lead deep into injury time when Gignac and Thauvin combined to set up Khalifa for a close-range finish.