Monaco beat Brest to take second place in Ligue 1, Marseille draw

Japan’s Takumi Minamino was on target as Monaco beat Brest 2-0 away in Ligue 1 on Sunday to climb above their opponents into second place in the table and close in on a return to the Champions League.

Swiss midfielder Denis Zakaria gave Monaco the lead in Brittany with a fine curling strike just before half-time and Minamino got their second goal shortly after the restart.

Monaco then held on for the victory despite having both Eliesse Ben Seghir and Wilfried Singo sent off in stoppage time.

A third straight win for the principality side leaves them primed to go on and secure automatic qualification for next season’s Champions League, a competition they have not graced since 2018/19.

They are two points above Brest and eight points behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain, who host Lyon later.

Also on Sunday, Lille bounced back from their midweek Europa Conference League exit on penalties to Aston Villa and strengthened their grip on fourth position by beating Strasbourg 1-0.

Canada’s Jonathan David scored the only goal of the game to take his tally in Ligue 1 this season to 17.

The team finishing fourth will enter next season’s Champions League in the preliminary rounds.

Marseille needed a stoppage-time goal by Cameroonian striker Faris Moumbagna to grab a point in a 2-2 draw away to Toulouse.

Moumbagna had also scored on Thursday as Marseille overcame Benfica in a penalty shoot-out to reach the Europa League semi-finals.

However, they have now failed to win in four league games and sit ninth in the table, meaning it may well be that they have to win the Europa League in order to qualify for Europe again next season.

Jordan’s Mousa Al-Tamari netted a late winner as Montpellier won 2-1 at Reims, while Metz moved out of the relegation zone by winning 1-0 at Le Havre.

The Normandy team dropped into the bottom three in their place.

as/jc