Paris (AFP)

Marseille, lacking confidence, was held in check in Nantes on Saturday (1-1), while Saint-Etienne saw its recovery stopped by Reims (1-1), on the eve of the PSG-Monaco shock in Ligue 1 .

Will the 26th day be the last for interim coach Nasser Larguet at OM?

While the rumor of the imminent arrival of Jorge Sampaoli intensified, the technician led his troops to a new draw, the third in this month of February, on the lawn of Nantes.

Without Florian Thauvin, OM struggled for a long time, even scuttling themselves with a huge blunder from goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, who opened the scoring to Ludovic Blas (50th).

But the Marseillais returned to the game thanks to a goal from Dimitri Payet, after a good job from Valentin Rongier and Yuto Nagatomo (69th).

Before seeing their defender Hiroki Sakai being excluded in extra time for a dangerous foot carried to the face of Abdoul Kader Bamba.

Not really satisfactory for Alvaro Gonzalez's partners, who failed to confirm their midweek success against Nice (3-2).

And probably not enough either to appease the anger of the groups of supporters, who all jointly called on Friday for the departure of President Jacques-Henri Eyraud.

"We need to play together, to find pleasure, these points are unifying," said Payet on Canal +, referring to a team "not yet cured".

The Phocéens remain sixth in the standings with only 38 points, and are under threat from Lens (7th, 37 pts), who faces the red lantern Dijon on Sunday.

After the second outing of their coach Antoine Kombouaré, the Canaries remain in the fight for maintenance with 18th place and 23 units, or 5 more than the 19th, Nîmes, which hosts Bordeaux on Sunday (3:00 p.m.) and has yet another match delay.

- Abi saves the Greens -

Just ahead, in 17th place, Lorient remains in danger, before welcoming Lille on Sunday (5:05 pm).

The Lille (2nd) have their destiny in hand: a victory would allow them to take control of the Championship from the Lyonnais, victorious Friday in Brest (3-2).

For Christophe Galtier's men, it will also be a question of forgetting Thursday's poor performance in the Europa League against Ajax Amsterdam (2-1).

In the other match played on Saturday, Saint-Etienne came close to the correctional against Reims after a goal from El Bilal Touré from the head.

But the joker Charles Abi allowed the Greens to equalize at the end of the match and to chain a fifth meeting without defeat (two draws, three wins).

The Greens will also regret a huge failure, that of Denis Bouanga alone against goal, in the very last seconds ...

In the standings, Rémois and Stéphanois do not leave each other: they both have 30 points and are respectively 13th and 14th before the end of the 26th day.

It will end on Sunday evening (9 p.m.) with an expected shock between Paris and Monaco: Kylian Mbappé against Wissam Ben Yedder, the two co-top scorers of last season.

After his fantastic hat-trick registered in Barcelona on Tuesday in the Champions League, the Parisian wants to do it again against his former club, ASM, 4th at five lengths from PSG.

In addition to long-time injured Neymar and Angel Di Maria, Paris will be deprived of winger Pablo Sarabia for this important meeting.

© 2021 AFP