Nimes - OM (3-1): Surprise defeat on the road

Olympique de Marseille fell to a surprise 3-1 reverse against Nimes Olympique at a boisterous Stade des Costières on Sunday night.

The hosts were featuring in their first Ligue 1 home game for 25 years and decidedly raced out of the blocks to trouble the current league leaders.

Renaud Ripart gave Steve Mandanda a scare early on after his header bounced narrowly wide from a corner before Denis Bouanga opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark.

The Nimes attacker latched onto a great ball forward before cutting inside on Hiroki Sakai and slotting under Mandanda.

OM levelled soon after half-time through Florian Thauvin. Another counter-attack caught the hosts unawares as Morgan Sanson picked up his team-mate who finished deftly from a well-timed lob.

But from then on, it was all Nimes. First, Thioub put the hosts back in front with a fortuitous finish after a defensive mix-up, before Ripart sealed the win with great poise and control over an OM defence which simply did not hold up.

OM suffer an early defeat in the league season and will want to make amends next weekend at home to Stade Rennais.