Auxerre's France striker Djibril Cisse believes Marseille have the potential to be among the Ligue 1 title contenders following his side's tough goalless draw with the Mediterranean outfit.

Marseille dominated for long spells in Sunday night's clash at their Velodrome stadium and were unlucky not to claim all three points against the visitors, who have qualified for the Champions League's group stages.

Cisse was relieved to come away with the single point and is not too disappointed that his team missed out on top spot.

"We took a very good point, our defenders held on very well whereas we, the strikers, were a little bit tired," Cisse said in L'Equipe.

"Their coach had planed everything, OM should soon join the top of the table."

Auxerre coach Guy Roux, meanwhile, was not surprised at the quality of Marseille's performance.

"Marseille played the way I expected them to with an intense, varied and organised game," he said.

"But we managed to adapt well and we had some success in a way.

"This was a very good away match for us as we were more solid than last time, we tried to disturb them on counter attacks.

"I am satisfied with our season start," added Roux, whose outfit is now second in the table behind Nice.

Ibrahima Bakayoko, Brahim Hemdani and above all Cyril Chapuis all had opportunities to open the scoring for OM last night, but a combination of good goalkeeper from Auxerre keeper Fabien Cool and bad luck, prevented them from grabbing their first home win of the season.

"After the game I felt a wave of disappointment and frustration because we really thought that we would snatch the three points considering the energy developed by my players and the opportunities we created," OM boss Alain Perrin said.

"We put a constant pressure on the Auxerre goal but it did not work. Auxerre remained very solid and we never managed to find the opening.

"The opportunities were there but we did not know how to take advantage of them.

"We will keep working on attacking during training."

Marseille, who started the tie in eighth spot, are now ninth in the table after the draw.