Goals from Loic Remy and Lucho Gonzalez secured a victory which takes Marseille within a point of the Ligue 1 summit, for 48 hours at least.
Remy nodded in Andre Ayew’s cross midway through the first half and Ayew’s younger brother Jordan was the provider as Lucho clinched victory with 10 minutes remaining.
Rennes remain level on 49 points with leaders Lille – who play Valenciennes on Sunday – while Marseille closed the gap to keep themselves firmly in a tensely-poised title race.
Didier Deschamps’ side endured a nervous moment after 20 minutes when Remy gave the ball away and goalkeeper Steve Mandanda had to scramble back into position to save Jerome Leroy’s ambitious 50-yard lob.
They responded immediately as Lucho shot wide after a neat exchange with Andre Ayew, whose next delivery allowed Remy to redeem himself with a neat header at the far post to open the scoring.
Victor Montano failed to hit the target from Razak Boukari’s cross as Rennes remained behind at the interval, and Yann Mvila volleyed Leroy’s free-kick wide early in the second period.
Andre Ayew combined with Andre-Pierre Gignac before setting up Remy, who timed his run perfectly but saw a powerful effort turned behind by goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez.
Douchez made an even better save to gather Stephane M’Bia’s header from a Benoit Cheyrou cross, and then used his feet to deny Gignac and keep his team in the game.
He was left powerless, though, when a poor defensive header fell to the younger Ayew – a substitute for Gignac – and he unselfishly teed up Lucho to finish calmly and make the points safe.
Credit: http://soccernet.espn.go.com
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