PARIS (AFP) - Marseille let slip a 3-1 lead at Rennes to draw 4-4 in a topsy turvy match on the opening day of the 2008/09 French football championship on Saturday night.

Eric Gerets' high-profile club looked set fair for victory with their two-goal lead at the interval, and briefly went ahead 4-3 in injury time, but Rennes' Bruno Cheyrou found the net in the fourth minute of time added on to level the match.

Paris Saint Germain, who won the League Cup last season yet spent the season fighting relegation, lost 1-0 at Monaco to a Frederic Nimani goal 11 minutes from time.

Reigning seven-times French champions Lyon host Toulouse in their opening match of the new campaign on Sunday.

Superb performances by Hatem Ben Arfa and keeper Steve Mandanda were not enough for Marseille to make a big impact in their opening match in Brittany.

The end of the match was simply amazing. Mandanda's 90th minute own goal to allow Rennes to pull back to 3-3, when the ball rebounded off his back from an El Amin Erbate clearance, had many thinking the match would end like that. Not so and in fact two goals were to come.

In the second minute of injury time, Elliot Grandin put Marseille 4-3 ahead but amazingly Cheyrou levelled the scores two minutes later.

Bakari Kone, Ben Arfa and Mamadou Niang all scored for Marseille after Olivier Thomert had given Rennes an early lead. Thomert scored a second soon after the break.

It is arguable whether this match helped Marseille's preparations for Wednesday's Champions League third qualifying round, first leg at Norwegians Brann, but it certainly showed their deficiencies in defence.

The new-look PSG under Charles Villeneuve was deservedly beaten by a young and spirited Monaco side at the Louis-II stadium. PSG, who host Bordeaux next week, simply did not merit more than defeat.

Le Guen himself believed the opposite, thinking his side deserved a point. "I am disappointed because we controlled the match till half time," Le Guen said. "I think we created more chances than Monaco but then we lowered our physical work. We could have played strong right to the end and taken a point."

Monaco had a quiet summer in the transfer market but showed great understanding between Jean-Jacques Gosso and Camel Meriem as well as good quality teamwork.

Without the injured Serge Gakpe, Djamel Bakar, Yannick Sagbo, and Freddy Adu, who was at the Olympics, Monaco were hampered going forward.

Monaco even had the setbacks of losing defender and knee-victim Adriano in the 13th minute and then Leandro Cufre in the 22nd but a PSG lacking bite were not able to make the most of it.

It was later announced by Monaco that Adriano and Cufre, who has a thigh injury, would both be out for around six weeks though further tests on Sunday would clarify the length of their absences.

Monaco's second-half goal was thanks to another accurate pass from Meriem allowing Nimani to open the score with a sublime header and the home side had no trouble cruising to victory as they dominated the final exchanges.