Nantes 1-4 PSG
Lorient 1-1 Monaco
St Etienne 3-2 Caen
Nancy 0-2 Auxerre
Le Havre 1-0 Rennes
Toulouse 2-0 Le Mans
Lille 3-2 Sochaux
Nice 1-3 Lyon
Grenoble 0-0 Valenciennes
Marseille 1-0 Bordeaux
When true champions are up against a wall and having all the criticism in the world thrown at them, they come out fighting. After a miserable time in which they only remained top by virtue of everybody else stuffing up, Lyon were being widely written off. Fail to win against Nice and if Bordeaux beat Marseille, they'd be off the top. In the end, neither of those things happened. Indeed, Lyon made sure that the result in Marseille was academic by thumping Nice. Jean Makoun got two and Karim Benzema the other - his eleventh in the league this season - in giving Lyon a 3-1 win. Though Onyekachi Apam did bring it back to 2-1 just before the break, Nice managed to get two men sent off in the second period as Lyon hammered home their superiority. That meant that Bordeaux, in the late game on Sunday, could only maintain pressure on Lyon by beating Marseille. Instead, they rather shot themselves in the foot. Early in the second half, Karim Ziani's free-kick into the box should have been routine, but Marouane Chamakh headed past Ulrich Ramé and into his own goal when under no pressure on the edge of the six-yard box. To compound their sorry night Souleymane Diawara was sent off late on after picking up a second caution.
PSG continued their good run with a 4-1 thumping of Nantes. Ludovic Giuly got two, his first from a defensive howler and his second to calm a few nerves after Nantes had got back into it with a penalty for a non-existent foul. Pegguy Luyindula got PSG's second and Stephane Sessegnon's 70th minute thunderbolt kept the Parisians great run going. Toulouse also kept pace at the top with a 2-0 win at home to Le Mans. André-Pierre Gignac got yet another goal in this prolific season and Moussa Sissoko got the opener, keeping Les Violets in touch. Lille are just on the fringes of the European places and they had to come from two goals down to beat a determined Sochaux. Romain Piteau and a penalty from Vaclav Sverkos had put Sochaux two up before a second yellow for Omar Daf reduced them to ten. Back came Lille with goals from Pierre-Alain Frau and Robert Vittek and they snatched the win two minutes from time through Eden Hazard.
That defeat for Socahux meant the Valenciennes' draw with Grenoble drew them level. Moreover, they are now only six behind Grenoble themselves and with the Alpine club in freefall and Valenciennes now unbeaten in five, it can only be a matter of time before they swap places, though there was little to report from this particular game. Caen are another in freefall and St Etienne pulled level with them with a 3-2 win as they finally converted their nice football into points. This time, rather than blow a lead, Les Verts came from behind. An early own goal from Mouhamadou Dabo put Caen in front, but Bafetimbi Gomis and two from Aruajo Ilan put St Etienne ahead. Steve Savidan did pull one back late on, but it was too little, too late. Auxerre also won, easing the pressure on themselves with goals in each half from Cedric Hengbart and fit-again Polish striker Ireneusz Jelen. Le Havre won too, severly denting Rennes' hopes of European football and concertina-ing up the bottom half of the table. Amadou Alassane left it late for Le Havre, snatching the winner in the dying seconds against a very below par Rennes. Nobody from tenth down can consider themselves out of danger at this stage and in that tenth place lie Monaco who drew 1-1 with Lorient. Yohan Mollo gave them the lead, but Fabrice Ariel's goal on the hour split the points.
Le Havre are still nine points away from safety and look doomed, but everyone else has given themselves hope of getting out of it and, at the same time, dragging plenty of others down. Lyon, meanwhile, enjoy a four point gap to the rest at the top with one point covering the next four.
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