Herve Renaud's reign as manager of Sochaux began promisingly with a 2-2 draw against high-flying Monaco in Sunday's early Ligue 1 action.
Renaud, who guided Zambia to last year's Africa Cup of Nations title, is in charge of his first ever French first division side.
And he will have been more than satisfied with this battling stalemate against the Principality side that began the weekend top of the table, but after this result end it in second place two points behind Paris Saint Germain.
Struggling Sochaux are one off the foot of the table, on six points.
Monaco were set fair for a win after a quickfire double from Ferreira Carrasco in the fifth and tenth minutes.
Sochaux to their credit never let up and earned a share of the spoils with second half goals from Cedric Bakambu and Joseph Loppy.
Later Sunday Saint Etienne host Lorient and Bordeaux are at Lyon.
On Saturday Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani both struck twice to inspire Paris Saint-Germain to a comfortable 4-0 victory over hapless Bastia.
Nigerian 'keeper Vincent Enyeama saved a late penalty to help Lille to a 1-0 win at 2012 champions Montpellier while Guingamp came back to defeat Evian 2-1.
Nantes continued their sparkling return to the top flight by defeating Ajaccio 1-0, while Algerian Foued Kadir gave Rennes a 2-0 lead before basement dwellers Valenciennes stormed back to salvage a 2-2 draw.
On Friday, Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina shrugged off his World Cup jet lag to star in Nice's 1-0 win over Cote d'Azur rivals Marseille.
Another South American, Argentine striker Dario Cvitanich, grabbed the only goal of the game for Nice.
Also Friday, Toulouse edged Reims 2-1 thanks to a 87th minute penalty from Danish international Martin Braithwaite, his third goal of the season.
Source: AFP
