Marseille coach Elie Baup has praised his players for their continued effort during what has been a busy season for Les Phoceens.

The 57-year-old guided his team to a narrow 1-0 victory over nine-man Toulouse yesterday, which kept them hot on the heels of leaders Lyon.

Andre-Pierre Gignac scored the only goal of the game at the Stadium de Toulouse, but Baup admitted that Marseille found it difficult to break down le Tef, despite Cheikh M'Bengue and Franck Tabanou seeing red in the first half.

"The context was unusual this evening," Ligue1.com quotes Baup as saying. "Having extra players does not always help because we don't always keep our movement of the ball simple.

"When we have space in front of us, we have a tendency to carry the ball further."

He added: "We are the only team to have played three matches in six days after a lot of games in the Europa League. We will have played 30 matches by the halfway stage in the season, so I have to take my hat off to my players."

Lyon are top of Ligue 1 by virtue of a far superior goal difference.