Evian Thonon Gaillard 1 - 0 Montpellier : Evian snatch valuable late win

Clarck N'Sikulu's late goal earned Evian a 1-0 victory against Montpellier and boosted their chances of remaining in Ligue 1 next season.

Saturday's Parc des Sports Annecy encounter appeared destined to end in a draw until striker N'Sikulu scored six minutes from time to earn Evian a precious three points.

Victory for Pascal Dupraz's side moves them up to 16th with 35 points from 30 games played, while seventh-placed Montpellier's hopes of qualifying for next season's Europa League competition remain in the balance after a second loss in three games.

Evian came into this fixture hoping to avoid three consecutive league defeats after losing to Monaco and Nantes in recent weekends, and they started brightly as Daniel Wass forced a decent save from Montpellier goalkeeper Geoffrey Jourdren in the sixth minute.

At the other end, Evian keeper Benjamin Leroy had to be at his acrobatic best to keep out a powerful 25-yard free-kick from Montpellier striker Kevin Berigaud.

Montpellier finished the first half strongly and should have been ahead 10 minutes before the interval, but Lucas Barrios could only shoot over the bar when he only had Leroy to beat.

The visitors picked up where they left off after the interval and Leroy was alert to deny Morgan Sanson and Daniel Congre in quick succession.

Evian striker Mathieu Duhamel was inches away from giving Evian the lead in the 66th minute after fine approach play by full-back Kassim Abdallah, but his header flew just wide of the target.

Duhamel's miss mattered little, however, for N'Sikulu beat Jourdren with a crisp left-foot finish in the 84th minute to cap off a stylish counter-attack move that he himself had started.