Rennes deny Marseille the chance to go top of Ligue 1

Rennes and Marseille played out a 1-1 draw

Paris, Feb 8 Marseille missed the chance to go atop the French Ligue 1 after they were forced to a 1-1 draw by Rennes. New Marseille recruit Lucas Ocampos scored the equaliser on his debut on Saturday. Marseille are one point adrift of league leaders Lyon with having played one more game, reports Xinhua.

The Argentine winger, who joined Marseille on the last day of the transfer window from Monaco, was introduced to the match at the start of the second half and converted his first chance, leveling from Dimitri Payet's corner with a right-footed volley that hit the post before crossing the line.

"He brought aggression and allowed us to play deeper," Marseille coach Marcelo Bielsa said.

Rennes opened the scoring in the 27th minute, courtesy of Ola Toivonen after Vincent Pajot headed a long ball for the Swedish forward, who chested it down and fired home a low shot past Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda.

Marseille failed to win away for the seventh straight match, and missed the chance to leapfrog Lyon at the top of the standings before the leaders host Paris Saint-Germain Sunday.

The draw stretched Rennes' winless run in the league to eight matches.

In the bottom of the standings, Bastia moved further away from the relegation zone by inflicting the 13th loss of their season on last-placed Metz 2-0.

Evian remained in the danger zone after slipping to a 1-0 home loss against Bordeaux.

Lille laboured to a 2-1 victory at sixth-placed Montpellier that ended the home team's seven-match unbeaten run and Lorient rallied from one goal down to win 3-1 at Reims.