Marvellous Marseille  smashed six goals past woeful Nancy to keep their faint hopes alive of snatching third place and the final Champions League qualifying spot in France.

Mamadou Niang put the Mediterranean giants on their way with a pair of first-half goals and then both Toifilou Maoulida and Mickael Pagis struck twice after the interval in the mauling.

The outcome means Marseille are in fifth place - four points behind third-top Lille who won their game against Bordeaux.

Rennes are two points clear of Marseille and go into their match at Nice riding an eight-game winning streak.

As usually, there was a big crowd on hand, 50,000 supporters with most rooting for the hosts.

There were signs as early as the fifth minute that Nancy were headed for a hiding as Pape Diakhate had to block a 20-yard shot from Franck Ribery at the last second.

Ribery turned provider in the 11th minute, however, and that led to Marseille's first goal.

His cross found Niang who connected well for the 1-0 lead.

Pagis could had notched his first after another Ribery cross into a threatening area but he shot over.

Nancy's Emmanuel Duchemin took aim from 18 yards on the half-hour but the attempt flew over by inches.

Niang then had his second, and Marseille were well on their way.

Ribery again tormented the defence with a pass to Maoulida whose shot was blocked by the Nancy goalkeeper Gennaro Bracigliano, but Niang was on hand to score off the rebound.

The rout was on seven minutes into the second half when Maoulida tucked one away from only a few yards after a neat pass into the box by Lorik Cana.

Nancy's Carlos Kim tried to get one back with a shot that had to be punched away by Marseille goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.

Maoulida grabbed his second, scoring from 12 yards on the right side of the area in the 64th minute.

After Wilson Oruma, who came on for Maoulida, struck the ball over the crossbar, Pagis added to the onslaught with an 18-yard drive in the 88th minute before getting his second a minute into injury time with a lob from 10 yards.

If only his players had enjoyed this type of performance in recent weeks, Marseille coach Jean Fernandez must be thinking, they might be headed for next season's Champions League.

However, they entered the game with just one victory in their previous four matches and probably have left it too late to reach Europe's elite club competition.

As for Nancy, they are well clear of the relegation zone but too far away to mount a challenge for the UEFA Cup in the standings.

However, they are taking Nice in the Coupe de la Ligue final next week and that would qualify them for Europe.

Maybe that's why they showed very little on this occasion, worried about possible injury.