Ligue 1: Nancy 1 Marseille 2

Marseille ensured they entered the Ligue 1 French winter break winners after overcoming Nancy 3-1 at Stade Marcel-Picot on Tuesday.

Goals from Mathieu Valbuena and Stephane Mbia gave the visitors a 2-1 lead at half-time, either side of a Reynald Lemaitre header for Nancy.

Marseille also had two goals chalked off in a lively game, but saw Lucho Gonzalez grab a third in injury time.

The hosts enjoyed the better of the early possession as Marseille struggled on the synthetic pitch. Djamel Bakar linked up well with Daniel Niculae, but the Romania international’s attempted lob failed to beat Steve Mandanda in the opposing goal.

Marseille found their feet and took the lead after 18 minutes.

Valbuena, the architect of Saturday’s thrilling 2-1 victory against Lorient, took possession of the ball before exchanging passes with Loic Remy.

He then calmly slotted under Guy N’Dy Assembe to make the score 1-0.

The hosts equalised seven minutes before the break, when a fine cross from Jean Calve picked out Lemaitre – who initially looked offside – to plant a header past Mandanda.

Parity did not last long, as the visitors issued a quick-fire response.

Morgan Amalfitano’s delivery from the right wing met the head of a diving Mbia to score.

Shortly before half-time, a fine counter-attack from a Nancy corner saw Marseille sweep up the field and Amalfitano crossed in low for Andre Ayew to net.

But the effort was chalked off for offside as a lively half drew to a close, with Marseille leading 2-1.

Nancy began the second half the brighter outfit, and almost equalised again.

An inswinging delivery from Lemaitre’s corner was headed powerfully goalwards by Andre Luiz, but the centre-back was thwarted by Mandanda.

The visitors subsequently had another goal chalked off. From a corner, Mbia was deemed to have controlled the ball with his arm before striking it past N’Dy Assembe and into the roof of the net.

Lucho Gonzalez added a third goal in stoppage time, after good work from Valbuena, to seal the three points.

Didier Deschamps’ men move up to fifth on the table with 31 points, while Nancy stay 15th but could find themselves as low as 19th come the Ligue 1 break.