Paris, Jan 18 (AP) Monaco's floundering season took another turn for the worse as it lost at rock-bottom Montpellier 2-1 in Ligue 1 and conceded third place to Lille.

Bruno Genesio's Lille extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to 21 games with a 2-1 home win against Nice to move one point above Monaco, which played earlier.

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Despite taking the lead through Germany defender Thilo Kehrer in the first half against the league's worst defense, third-placed Monaco collapsed after the break when Jordan forward Mousa Al Tamari scored twice.

New signing Mika Biereth started in attack for coach Adi Hütter's Monaco, which has won only twice in the past 11 games overall.

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It was only Montpellier's third win in 18 league games.

Defeat left Monaco 12 points behind leader Paris Saint-Germain and increased the pressure on Hütter.

Next up for Lille is a tough trip to Premier League leader Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday, but Genesio's side is proving very resilient this season.

Lille fell behind in the 29th when midfielder Sofiane Diop turned the ball in after goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier spilled a right-wing cross from Jonathan Clauss.

Clauss was fooled by striker Jonathan David's dummy shortly after the break, however, and David astutely set up Hakon Haraldsson's equalizer. Then Clauss botched a clearance in the 63rd and defender Bafodé Diakité finished.

Nice dropped to fifth place and one point behind Monaco.

PSG is at Lens on Saturday. (AP) UNG 7/21/2024

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)