Marseille stay top after grappling point from Porto

MARSEILLE, France (AFP) - Struggling French giants Marseille held on to steal a point after being dominated throughout their 1-1 draw against Champions League group A rivals FC Porto on Wednesday.

Both sides could previously boast winning European club football's biggest prize in the past 15 years, but illustrious football was at a premium at the Velodrome despite the conspicuous dominance of 2004 winners Porto.

Mamadou Niang opened the scoring for Marseille late in the second half, but a foul from the hosts' keeper, Steve Mandanda, gave Porto a deserved penalty that was converted by Lucho Gonzalez barely 10 minutes later.

Despite the unwelcome draw, Marseille are still top of their group with a two-point cushion over Porto.

Marseille had created history for a French club by beating Liverpool at Anfield earlier in the group stages but the menace of Porto proved a seemingly more difficult challenge than beating the former European champions.

France's only winners of the European Cup, in 1993, Marseille's defence were kept on their toes in a first-half that was expertly dominated by the visitors who came close twice to silencing the Velodrome inside the first quarter hour.

After nine minutes Porto midfielder Raul Meireles was given time to advance and unleash a shot which Mandanda did well to parry, the ball ricocheting off his post.

Barely five minutes later the increasingly generous hosts' defence gave Raul Meireles another chance to open the scoring, the midfielder unleashing another goalbound drive which hit the post, this time without the aid of Mandanda's hand.

Porto were in command, and it didn't take long for Marseille's Belgian coach Eric Gerets to begin screaming at his men to move up a notch in a bid to stem the flow of Porto's liberated midfield.

It still took until the half hour mark for Marseille to begin resembling an attacking team, a free kick from Boudewijn Zenden forcing Porto keeper Helton to box the ball away with his fists.

Two minutes later the Dutch midfielder aimed a cross at dangerously positioned Djibril Cisse although the ball was bundled to safety.

A 25-metre drive from Bruno Cheyrou, which sailed high and wide of Helton's upright, characterised Marseille's disappointing first half.

After the interval Porto emerged with a similar gameplan and it took only seconds before they came close to breaking the deadlock, a bullet header from Lisandro Lopez forcing Mandanda to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Niang then provided a brief glimmer of hope for the hosts with an angled shot which Helton handled easily.

It was against the run of play, in the 69th minute, that Marseille stunned Porto when Niang defied the close attention of a defender to connect with Cisse's cross-goal pass after the ball had been headed back into the former Liverpool striker's path following Porto's attempt to clear.

Marseille's joy soon ended, however, after Porto won a deserved penalty when Mandanda tripped Lisandro and Lucho Gonzalez beat the keeper to level the scores from the penalty spot.