体坛英语新闻：Monaco held 1-1 by Lille at home without Falcao

PARIS, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Monaco continued with their stuttering start as the Ligue 1 runners-up of last season were held to a 1-1 draw Saturday at home by Lille with Radamel Falcao excluded from the squad.

Amid increasing speculation of the Colombian forward's leaving before the summer transfer window shut on Monday, Falcao was withdrawn from the matchday list at the last minute.

His replacement Dimitar Berbatov started for Monaco and scored the second half equalizer on 61 minutes to earn Leonardo Jardim's side a point.

Berbatov cancelled out Nolan Roux's opener for the visitors after just 17 minutes into the game, preventing Monaco from slipping to a third league defeat after only four rounds of the season.

Ryan Mendes set up Lille's goal as he raced in from the right and laid the ball off for Roux, who slammed home with a fierce shot, while for Monaco, it was Fereeira Carasco who fed Berbatove to convert from close range.

After the first month of the new campaign, Monaco, who only managed one victory, ranks just the 14th on the Ligue 1 table, and Lille claims unbeaten start to the season and gets back on track with Saturday's win after the midweek Champions League play-off exit at FC Porto.

In other play of the day, Lens came back to win a thrilling 4-2 over Reims, Lorient proved themselves too good for Guingamp with a 4-0 clean win, Nantes maintain Montpellier hoodoo with nipping 1-0, Toulouse beat bottom team Evian 1-0 and Caen lost to Reenes on the same score, while an earlier fourth round games on Friday saw French giants Marseille trounced Nice 4-0 with a double efforts from Dimitri Payet.