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Ligue 1 roundup: Monaco miss chance to go top with derby loss at Nice

VALERY HACHE / AFP / Getty

High-flying Monaco passed up the opportunity to go top of French Ligue 1 on Sunday as they lost 2-1 at neighbours Nice, before leaders Paris Saint-Germain beat historic rivals Marseille in the first Classique of the season.

Breel Embolo gave the visitors a first-half lead before Nice struck back via Evann Guessand and Gaetan Laborde to inflict 10-man Monaco's first loss of the domestic campaign.

The principality side remain in second place on 20 points. PSG are three points clear after beating third-place Marseille later on Sunday.

Swiss striker Embolo broke the deadlock for Monaco in the 39th minute, finishing neatly after being released by Maghnes Akliouche's through-ball.

But the match turned in first-half stoppage time as Guessand headed in an equaliser for Nice and Monaco's Brazilian defender Vanderson then picked up a second yellow.

Despite the numerical disadvantage Monaco pressed for a winner in the second period.

A poorly-executed corner routine cost Monaco as Laborde was gifted the opportunity to run through completely unchallenged, before dinking a one-on-one finish past the goalkeeper on 71 minutes.

Earlier, Lyon drew 2-2 at home to Auxerre to move to seventh in the table.

Georges Mikautadze twice gave the hosts the lead but they were on both occasions pegged back by Sinaly Diomande and Hamed Traore.

Strasbourg climbed to the top half of the table by beating Nantes 3-1, thanks to a brace from Andrey Santos and a Dilane Bakwa goal, before 18-year-old Herba Guirassy scored a late consolation for the away side.

Two goals in the opening 10 minutes by Zakaria Aboukhlal sent Toulouse on their way to a 3-0 win at lowly Montpellier, with Joshua King wrapping the game up before the half-hour.

The weekend's Ligue 1 action concludes as resurgent Marseille host champions PSG, pitting south against north and third against first.

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