Defeat in Marseille leaves Reims on the brink

Reims were left deep in trouble at the bottom of the Ligue 1 table after Michy Batshuayi's solitary strike saw them go down 1-0 in Marseille.The hosts were looking for a first league win at home since September and, given their visitors' recent run of three straight defeats, Batshuayi's fortuitous strike in the second-half sealed a return to winning ways at the Stade Velodrome for Franck Passi's side.Following defeat the visitors find themselves 19th in the table, a point a drift of 17th-placed Toulouse, but welcome in-from Lyon to the Stade Augustine Delaune on the final day of the season.Reims did look to capitalise on l'OM's poor home form, though, and almost made the perfect start inside five minutes but Diego's close-range header ended up the wrong side of the post with Steve Mandanda well beaten.Despite that early blip Marseille began to dominate and Benjamin Mendy forced a two-handed save from Kossi Agassa before the visiting keeper kept out both Romain Alessandrini and Steven Fletcher in superb fashion.Fletcher was heavily involved again in the latter stages of the opening half but the former Sunderland striker dragged an effort wide of the post when through on goal before blasting over from 20 yards before the interval.Then, with 10 minutes played in the second-half, Marseille got their reward in somewhat fortuitous circumstances when Batshuayi charged down Agassa's hurried clearance to open the scoring.Mandanda was called upon to make a rare save just after the hour mark when Jaba Kankava's deflected free-kick looked to trouble the Marseille stopper, but that was as close as it got for the shot-shy visitors.