European Football Saturday Round-up

French Ligue 1

Rod Fanni's 94th-minute goal kept Marseille's Ligue 1 title challenge alive with a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Valenciennes at the Stade Velodrome.

Starting the weekend eight points adrift of leaders Paris St Germain, Marseille knew they could not afford another slip after a disappointing run of form since the winter break.

But despite dominating the match from start to finish, Marseille could not find a breakthrough until deep into injury time when Fanni beat his man to fire a low shot into the goal and relieve the pressure.

The win sends Marseille into second place, at least until Lyon face a tricky trip to Bordeaux on Sunday.

Nice moved up to fourth in the congested scramble for European places with a 1-0 win over Bastia.

Neal Maupay scored the only goal of the game just after the hour mark, condemning Bastia to a defeat that leaves the Corsicans just three points above the bottom three.

Lorient are seventh, three points behind Nice, after beating Evian 2-1.

Jeremie Aliadiere opened the scoring from the penalty spot three minutes before half-time after he was fouled by Ebert Betao.

Kevin Monnet-Paquet doubled the lead in the 77th minute with a powerful close-range finish, and although Betao soon got one back with an outstanding volley, Lorient hung on.

Toulouse scored twice in the final five minutes to deny Troyes a much-needed win in a barnstorming finish to their 2-2 draw.

Troyes had grabbed the lead with two late goals of their own as substitute Mohamed Yattara slotted home from close range in the 78th minute before Benjamin Nivet grabbed a second five minutes later.

But Eden Ben Basat got one back in the 86th minute, striking a post but then getting the ball back from Aymen Abdennour to make sure second time around, while Etienne Didot lobbed Yohann Thuram-Ulien to level in the 88th minute.

Troyes do at least move off the foot of the table, four points from safety, thanks to Nancy's 1-0 defeat at the hands of Montpellier.

Emanuel Herrera got the only goal in the 34th minute, heading home Anthony Mounier's cross to send Montpellier ninth, still only four points from fourth place.

Brest and Ajaccio shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw.

Florian Raspentino put Brest ahead after only 11 minutes, firing a strong shot beyond Guillermo Ochoa, but Dennis Oliech levelled in the 71st minute from close range.

Scottish Premier League

Celtic showed no signs of a European hangover with an impressive 6-2 thrashing of Dundee United in their Clydesdale Bank Premier League encounter at Parkhead.

The Hoops had been humbled 3-0 at home to Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday night, but responded well to losing a 10th-minute goal to Tannadice midfielder Stuart Armstrong to surge ahead through defender Efe Ambrose, Kris Commons and Joe Ledley.

At 2-1, Fraser Forster made a great save from a Jon Daly penalty, and Commons grabbed his second from the spot 10 minutes into the second half before Anthony Stokes notched a double to complete the rout, with Johnny Russell scoring late on for the Taysiders.

Michael Higdon's wonderful volley took his personal tally against Inverness this season to six goals as Motherwell beat Caley Thistle 3-0 to move above their opponents and into second place in the standings.

Higdon's left-footed strike, his 18th goal of the campaign, put Motherwell three ahead before the hour mark and made it 12 goals and three wins in total for the Steelmen against their Highland visitors.

Leigh Griffiths scored the only goal of the game as fourth-placed Hibernian won 1-0 at St Mirren.

Paul Heffernan scored a hat-trick as Kilmarnock continued their march up the table with a 3-0 victory at Hearts.

The win moved Kenny Shiels' side up to fifth spot.

Finally, Ross County stretched their unbeaten run to seven games with a hard-fought 1-0 triumph over St Johnstone at the Global Energy Stadium. Ivan Sproule scored the decisive goal with a superb strike in the 11th minute.

Portuguese Primeira Liga

Diego Capel's second-half winner earned Sporting Lisbon a 3-2 triumph at Gil Vicente on Saturday night, lifting the struggling capital club to seventh in the Portuguese Liga standings.

Sporting, who headed into the encounter just four points above the relegation zone and one better off than their opponents, started brightly and were two goals to the good within six minutes thanks to Bruma and Tiago Ilori.

The home team hit back through Hugo Vieira's brace, the first after 20 minutes and the second eight minutes into the second half, but Diego Capel had the final say just after the hour mark to ensure victory for Sporting.

Dutch Eredivisie 

Ten-man PSV Eindhoven stretched their lead at the top of the Eredivisie table to six points with a comeback 2-1 win over FC Utrecht.

Jacob Mulenga fired in-form Utrecht into a 10th-minute lead but the leaders were on level terms again on the half-hour through Belgian forward Dries Mertens.

Georgino Wijnaldum sent PSV ahead on 65 minutes and despite Atiba Hutchinson's red card moments later, they held on.

Ajax can close the gap again when they travel to RKC Waalwijk on Sunday, but FC Twente lost further ground as their recent woes continued with a 1-1 home draw against bottom team Willem II.

Coach Steve McClaren admitted on Saturday that his team desperately needed to arrest a poor run that has seen them fail to record a league win since the turn of the year.

But Ricardo Ippel's stoppage-time strike prevented them from doing that after Douglas had headed the opener from close range on 43 minutes.

A stunning Willy Overtoom goal was not enough for AZ Alkmaar as they drew 2-2 at struggling Roda JC.

Roda raced ahead in the first minute through Sanharib Malki but, after Jozy Altidore (34) equalised, Overtoom (51) produced a brilliant 25-yard free-kick to fire AZ ahead.

Their lead lasted just 13 minutes, though, as Frank Demouge ensured Roda inched two points clear of danger.

Finally, NAC Breda and Heracles Almelo shared a 1-1 draw after Rick Ten Voorde (56) cancelled out an 11th-minute opener from Everton.

Turkish Super Lig

Substitute Dorge Kouemaha struck a late equaliser to secure a 1-1 draw for 10-man Gaziantepspor at second-placed Besiktas in the Super Lig on Saturday.

Ersan Gulum's first-half strike had looked to have set Besiktas on course for victory to keep up their pursuit of leaders Galatasaray, who won 2-1 at at Akhisar Beledi on Friday.

The visitors had Gilles Binya sent off eight minutes after the restart, but Kouemaha nevertheless restored parity in the 89th minute to nick a draw which lifted his team off the bottom and ensured Besiktas remained seven points behind Gala at the summit.

Elsewhere, Kayserispor moved into mid-table after winning 3-0 at fifth-spotted Eskisehirspor. Cleyton put the visitors ahead after 21 minutes and Sefa Yilmaz's late brace sealed matters.

Finally, third-placed Antalyaspor were held to a goalless home draw by Karabukspor.

Greek Superleague

Goals were at a premium in the Superleague today as second-placed PAOK Salonika were held goalless away to AEK Athens.

The result means that leaders Olympiacos can go 17 points clear when they face FC Xanthi on Sunday.

The match between Giannina and Panthrakikos also finished 0-0, with the only place fans could see a goal on Saturday at Kerkyra, where the basement-dwellers enjoyed only their third win of the season, beating Panionios 2-1.

They fell behind to Dimitrios Kolovos' seventh-minute goal, but Giannis Gesios scored late in either half to turn it around, the winner coming eight minutes from time.

The result sees Kerkyra move to within four points of safety at the foot of the table.

Swiss Super League

Grasshoppers opened up a seven-point gap at the top of the Swiss Super League thanks to a 2-0 win over Young Boys at the Letzigrund.

Anat Ngamukol opened the scoring in the 26th minute before making the points safe 11 minutes from the end.

Second-placed Basel can reduce the Zurich club's lead back to four points when they travel to mid-table Lausanne Sport on Sunday.

FC Sion moved up to third as a Philippe Montandon own goal on 64 minutes earned a 1-0 win over St Gallen.

 

BelgianJupiler League

Zulte-Waregem moved back to within eight points of Jupiler League leaders Anderlecht with a straightforward 2-0 victory over lowly Waasland-Beveren.

Having seen Anderlecht pull clear with a 2-0 win over Charleroi on Saturday night, Zulte-Waregem responded in kind with goals in each half from M'Baye Leye and Jonathan Delaplace.

Standard Liege are third, a further eight points back, after Imoh Ezekiel's 16th-minute goal proved enough to win 1-0 away at Cercle Brugge.

Two goals in four minutes from Ilombe M'Boyo and Herve Kage midway through the second half gave Gent a 2-0 away win over Mons, while Mads Junker and Steven De Petter scored in either half as Mechelen won 2-0 at struggling Lierse.

Leuven and Beerschot shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw, with struggling Beerschot doing well to score a 79th-minute equaliser through Benito Raman, cancelling out Ebrahim Savaneh's 50th-minute opener even after the dismissal of goalkeeper Stijn Stijnen in the 73rd minute.