Montpellier Hérault SC 1-1 Toulouse FC

Montpellier took the lead just seven minutes in with Geoffrey Dernis scoring his fourth goal of the season, but Toulouse were back level five minutes before half-time thanks to a superb strike from the unlikely source of Cheik M'Bengue and that proved sufficient for them to return home with a point despite seeing Franck Tabanou sent-off towards the end.

The result leaves Montpellier a point clear at the summit, but Paris Saint-Germain will go two points above them with a win at home to Lille on Sunday, while the champions could also go top by taking three points in the capital, although they would need to win by at least a five-goal margin. Toulouse remain sixth but will drop to seventh if Rennes take at least a point at Ajaccio on Sunday.

The hosts came into this game still top despite seeing their eight-match unbeaten run ended in a 1-0 defeat at Valenciennes last weekend. Unhappy at his side's performance in the North, Montpellier coach René Girard made two changes to his starting line-up with Cyril Jeunechamp replacing Garry Bocaly at right-back and Joris Marveaux dropping to the bench to make way for Marco Estrada, the Chilean fit again and starting for the first time since the opening day of the campaign.

Toulouse meanwhile were looking to become the only the second visiting team to win at the Stade de la Mosson this season, following on from PSG's 3-0 win here in late September, and were also chasing their first win in this fixture since March 2004. Their coach Alain Casanova made just a single alteration to the team that edged Evian-TG 2-1 in Week 17, with Paulo Machado dropping to the bench and Norwegian Daniel Braaten coming in on the right wing.

Bright start

The league leaders started the game brightly and were rewarded with the opening goal when John Utaka latched onto an Estrada ball over the top only to see his shot beaten away by Toulouse 'keeper Ali Ahamada. However, Dernis was on hand to fire home the rebound.

After that the home side, who had scored at least three goals on four separate occasions at the Mosson this season, threatened to run away with the game. Ahamada got down to save a Dernis shot from the edge of the area and reacted well to keep out a strike from Ligue 1's leading scorer Olivier Giroud.

Rare strike for M'Bengue

An Estrada free-kick from fully 30 yards then passed narrowly wide of the post after half an hour but Toulouse then came back into a game that was being played at a frightening tempo at times. And they got their reward five minutes before the break when a Dernis pass was intercepted by M'Bengue. The left-back drove forward, cutting inside before sending a superb curling strike into Geoffrey Jourdren's top left-hand corner. From a Montpellier viewpoint the goal may have been avoidable, but that should take nothing away from M'Bengue, for whom it was only his second Ligue 1 goal in his 93^rd appearance and his first since August 2009.

Girard responded by taking Dernis off at the interval and replacing him with Souleymane Camara, the Senegalese making his first appearance after sitting out the last two games due to injury. But neither side was able to regain control of a frantic game until the final 20 minutes, when Montpellier stepped things up a gear as they chased an eighth win in nine home league games this season.

Giroud headed a Camara cross from the right just wide before Camara himself turned away from M'Bengue and sent in a fizzing low shot from long range that Ahamada turned behind for a corner. Then Camara beat Ahamada to an Estrada cross only to see his header cleared off the line before Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa's net-bound follow-up was also blocked.

But there was to be no way through for the hosts, even after Toulouse had been reduced to ten men for the final moments after Tabanou was shown a second yellow card in the 87^th minute.

>> Teamsheet