'Keeper Landreau sets new record mark

Veteran goalkeeper Mickael Landreau broke the record for the most appearances by any player in France's top flight as he started for Bastia in their Corsican derby draw with Ajaccio on Wednesday. French international Landreau played his 603rd Ligue 1 game, three days after equalling the previous record held by former Monaco 'keeper Jean-Luc Ettori, in a game played on neutral ground on the mainland at the Stade Parsemain, home of second-tier club Istres. But Landreau, formerly of Nantes, Paris Saint-Germain and Lille, was unable to help Bastia beat their island rivals as the game ended in a 1-1 draw, a late Eduardo strike for Ajaccio cancelling out Florian Raspentino's early opener. Elsewhere on Wednesday, Saint-Etienne missed the chance to reclaim fifth spot as they went down 3-1 away to Rennes in Brittany, with Argentine striker Silvio Romero scoring his first two goals in French football for the hosts. Bordeaux inflicted a first home defeat on Guingamp since the opening day of the season, winning 1-0 thanks to a solitary Julien Faubert strike, while Lorient increased the pressure on beleaguered Montpellier coach Jean Fernandez with a 2-0 victory at the Stade de la Mosson. Maxime Barthelme put Lorient ahead before Cameroon international forward Vincent Aboubakar scored his ninth goal of the season from the penalty spot at the death after the home side had been reduced to nine men by the dismissals of Vitorino Hilton and Abdelhamid El-Kaoutari. However, Montpellier's plight is not as serious as that of Sochaux, who remain rooted to the bottom seven points from safety after losing 2-0 at home to Reims. Leaders Paris Saint-Germain travelled to Evian in Wednesday's late kick-off looking to equal the club record for the longest unbeaten run in the top flight of 27 games, set two decades ago. PSG's last defeat of any sort came against Evian in Annecy in April, when they lost on penalties in the quarter-finals of the French Cup. Not including that, however, PSG are 36 games unbeaten in all competitions, one short of the overall club record. Their nearest challengers Lille beat Marseille 1-0 on Tuesday, with Nolan Roux scoring a stoppage-time winner as Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama kept his 11th consecutive clean sheet. Meanwhile, Monaco strengthened their grip on a top-three place thanks to their 3-0 victory away to Nice in a Cote d'Azur derby, achieved without Radamel Falcao, as the Colombian missed a second successive game due to injury. James Rodriguez, Emmanuel Riviere and Lucas Ocampos got the goals for Claudio Ranieri's men, as Nice fell to a sixth straight defeat. The midweek round of games concludes on Thursday when mid-table duo Lyon and Toulouse meet at the Stade de Gerland. Source: AFP