Marseille fly high in Ligue 1 with Nantes win

PARIS (Reuters) - Olympique de Marseille's inconsistency continued when they beat Nantes 3-1 in Ligue 1 on Saturday to climb up to third in the standings three days after being knocked out of the Champions League.

Marseille, who have lost their four group games without scoring a goal in Europe's premier club competition, have 21 points from 10 games and trail leaders Paris St Germain by three points having played one fewer game.

Florian Thauvin, Dimitri Payet and Dario Benedetto netted for Andre Villas-Boas's side, who had not played in Ligue 1 in more than three weeks after two games were postponed following COVID-19 cases within their opponents' ranks.

Nantes, who replied via Ludovic Blas, are 14th on 13 points from 12 matches.

Thauvin opened the scoring in the second minute, lobbing Lafont after being played through by Valentin Rongier.

Payet doubled Marseille's advantage 10 minutes before the break when he scored from close range from Michael Cuisance's whipped cross.

A Jean-Charles Castelletto handball earned OM a penalty, which Benedetto converted on the hour to put the result beyond doubt.

Blas pulled one back for the visitors with a deflected volley from inside the box.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond)