Bordeaux held to 1-1 draw by visiting Grenoble

PARIS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Girondins Bordeaux missed a chance to put pressure on Ligue 1 leaders Olympique Lyon when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by promoted Grenoble on Saturday.
The Aquitaine side remain second in the standings with 43 points from 24 matches, three points behind Lyon, who host bottom side Le Havre on Sunday (1600).
Bordeaux opened the scoring on the hour when Morocco striker Marouane Chamakh headed home after Grenoble goalkeeper Gregory Wimbee failed to block Fernando Cavenaghi’s attempt.
But Bostjan Cesar equalised 14 minutes from time when a Laurent Courtois shot bounced off Ulrich Rame’s left post to the Slovenian defender’s feet and he put it into the net.
Bordeaux started the game with the influential Yoann Gourcuff on the bench after the playmaker featured for all 90 minutes of France’s 2-0 defeat by Argentina on Wednesday.
Gourcuff came on with nine minutes left but had no effect and it was Grenoble who had a chance to snatch all three points when Sofiane Seghouli’s volley hit the bar after 84 minutes.
Lille, who are also on the fringes of the title race, slipped one place to seventh after losing 2-0 at AJ Auxerre and remain seven points behind the leaders.
Jimmy Briand’s late goal helped sixth-placed Stade Rennes salvage a 1-1 draw at home to Nancy, who had taken the lead courtesy of a Youssouf Hadji close-range shot.
Later on Saturday (2000), third-placed Paris St Germain host St Etienne hoping to narrow the gap with Lyon to one point.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by Ken Ferris)