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Marseille were knocked off the top of UEFA Cup Group F after suffering their first defeat of the competition, 1-0 to Levski Sofia on Thursday.
Already qualified for the round-of-16, Marseille Coach Jean Fernandez was without the services of experienced midfielder Sabri Lamouchi and decided to start with regular first-teamers Franck Ribéry, Mamadou Niang, Lorik Cana and Wilson Oruma on the bench.
If the new-look team seemed to take a little while to find their bearings, they certainy weren't helped by a bitterly cold and waterlogged playing surface at the Georgi Asparuhov Stadium in the heart of Sofia's industrial zone.
The French side appeared to have their hosts' measure in the opening exchanges, however Levski slowly drew in confidence as they sensed Marseille's lack of attacking cohesion.
Midfielder Telkiyski was the first to test the waters for the home side on 28 minutes with a thunderous drive from fully-30 metres out that had Fabien Barthez scrambling across his goal only to see the ball flash past the post.
A minute later and OM was saved by the woodwork as a lunging Borimirov somehow failed to score from Tomasic's cross from the right.
Telkiyski then saw his looping header from Yovov's centre pass agonisingly wide of Barthez's goal as Marseille struggled to deal with their more enterprising opponents.
However, the visitors did finish the first half in brighter fashion as Samir Nasri saw his ambitious free-kick turned around the post by Petkov before Christian Gimenez fired into the side-netting with an unmarked Andres Mendoza screaming for the ball just five metres out.
The second half was barely ten minutes old when Yovov burst past Demetrius Ferreira and Habib Beye in the OM penalty area and slammed a wonderful shot into the opposing top corner, leaving Barthez no chance.
Levski had the goal their first half endeavours clearly merited as Marseille continued to look slugglish in the transition from midfield to attack.
Fernandez threw on both Niang and Ribéry to try and rectify the situation, however, while the former did have a goal ruled out for offside in the 80th minute, it was Barthez that kept his side in the match as Levski threatened to run away with the match.
The win sees the Bulgarians go top of the group, level with points and goal-difference with Marseille but with the better head-to-head record.
In the groups other match, reigning champions CSKA Moscow were knocked out after conceding a late 1-0 loss to Dinamo Bucharest.
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