Marseille's title hopes were dealt a severe blow on Sunday as they were beaten 3-1 at home by third-placed Lyon.
Marseille enjoyed much the better of the opening stages and Mamadou Niang hit the post on 16 minutes with a superb snap-shot from the edge of the area.
Shortly afterwards, Hatem Ben Arfa played the ball for Mathieu Valbuena but, after his initial shot was saved, Brandao failed to take advantage from the loose ball as his diving header went straight to keeper Hugo Lloris.
Their failure to capitalise on their chances was punished after half an hour when Karim Benzema played in Ederson, and Brandao hopelessly hacked him down in the area.
After a long delay as toilet paper was cleared from the goalmouth, Benzema held his nerve to drill the ball down the centre.
Marseille could have equalised immediately afterwards, but Renato Civelli’s header went just wide of the post.
And the home side were left stunned just before half-time when Benzema grabbed his second of the game, slipping the ball beyond Steve Mandanda at the near post.
At the start of the second half, L’OM then had two penalty appeals as Niang went down twice in the space of a minute, but the referee waved away the appeals.
Five minutes later, Lloris brought Brandao down in the area, but the Marseille striker had handballed in the build-up and, again, nothing was given.
The atmosphere at the Stade Velodrome died down for much of the aftermath, but Sylvain Wiltord gave them a lifeline in the 81st minute when he turned the ball home from Niang’s centre.
They thought they were level a minute afterwards, too, when Wiltord poked the ball home after Brandao’s flick on, but he was in an offside position and it was ruled out.
And Lyon added insult to injury in the final minute of added-on time as Juninho’s long-range free-kick took a bounce to deceive Mandanda.
Marseille are now three points behind leaders Bordeaux and one behind on goal difference.
In the day’s earlier games, Nantes suffered a major blow to their hopes of escaping relegation as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to seventh-placed Rennes.
Mali striker Mamadou Bagayoko gave Les Canaris the lead shortly before half-time after an error from Petter Hansson.
However, while the hosts dominated proceedings in the second half, they were left devastated by an 83rd-minute equaliser from Moussa Sow.
The result leaves Rennes in contention for a place in Europe, but Nancy are now three points away from safety with two games to play.
Lille kept their Europa League hopes alive as they rescued a 1-1 draw at home to mid-table Nice.
Anthony Modeste put Nice ahead in the first half with a low drive 11 minutes before the break, but Yohan Cabaye equalised on 71 minutes after an error from goalkeeper David Ospina.
Lille are level with Rennes on both points and goal difference.