Olympique Marseille's Patrice Evra (right) takes a shot as Nice's Arnaud Souquet defends in the French Ligue 1 match in Marseille on May 7, 2017. — AFP pic

PARIS, May 8 — Patrice Evra scored his first goal for Marseille in yesterday's 2-1 victory over Nice to extinguish the visitors' hopes of claiming an automatic Champions League qualifying spot. 

Ricardo Pereira and Dalbert both hit the post for Nice inside the opening 15 minutes, but Marseille grabbed the lead when Bafetimbi Gomis headed in his team-leading 18th goal of the season.

Mario Balotelli equalised shortly after halftime, bundling in from close range to set a new career best with his 15th league goal of the campaign.

France international Evra popped up with the winner on 66 minutes with a diving header from a Maxime Lopez cross to nudge Marseille ahead of sixth-placed Bordeaux and into the final Europa League berth.

"Evra? I'm happy for him, but aside from his decisive goal the team performed well,” said Marseille coach Rudi Garcia.

Nice suffered just a third defeat of the season and were officially eliminated from the title race. They will finish third with Paris Saint-Germain six points clear in second place and owning a far superior goal difference.

Lyon face a monumental challenge to turn around a 4-1 deficit in next Thursday's Europa League semifinal second leg against Ajax, but Bruno Genesio's side are at least destined to return to the competition next term after a 3-2 home win over Nantes.

Valentin Rongier gave Nantes a first-half lead at Parc OL, but Nabil Fekir equalised from the penalty before Maxwel Cornet's brace either side of a Guillaume Gillet effort left Lyon five points clear of Marseille in fourth.

Monaco took another big stride towards securing their first Ligue 1 crown since 2000 with a 3-0 victory at Nancy on Saturday.

Leonardo Jardim's men lead PSG by three points with a game in hand and need just one win from their final three matches to all but sew up a remarkable league triumph.

PSG though retained an outside chance of denying Monaco with a 5-0 rout of bottom side Bastia as Edinson Cavani scored twice — but also missed a penalty — to climb up to 33 goals for the campaign.

French Ligue 1 results yesterday

Rennes 1 (Mubele 80) Montpellier 0

Lyon 3 (Fekir 65-pen, Cornet 70, 80) Nantes 2 (Rongier 19, Gillet 75)

Marseille 2 (Gomis 21, Evra 66) Nice 1 (Balotelli 50)

Played Saturday

Paris Saint-Germain 5 (Lucas Moura 32, Verratti 35, Cavani 76, 89, Marquinhos 82) Bastia 0

Guingamp 4 (Briand 4, 65, Salibur 55, 59-pen) Dijon 0

Lille 0 Metz 2 (Mandjeck 36, Cohade 55)

Lorient 1 (Philippoteaux 62) Angers 1 (Manceau 72)

Nancy 0 Monaco 3 (Badila 3-og, Silva 40, Lemar 86)

Toulouse 0 Caen 1 (Santini 58)

Played Friday

Saint-Etienne 2 (Beric 45, Pajot 64) Bordeaux 2 (Ounas 42-pen, Laborde 50) — AFP