Ligue 1 reviews: Lyon reined in

Nantes 1-1 Grenoble
Valenciennes 2-0 Lille
Sochaux 1-0 Nice
Le Mans 2-0 Le Havre
Auxerre 1-1 Toulouse
Bordeaux 1-0 Lorient
PSG 4-1 Nancy
Caen 0-1 Marseille
Monaco 2-2 St Etienne
Lyon 1-1 Rennes

Another glimmer of hope in France for the chasing pack as Lyon stumble once again. Actually, that's a bit unfair as Rennes have as good a recent record at the Stade Gerland as anyone else. The home side had the better chances early on and Ederson rattled the bar early in the second half before Kim Kallstrom, smashing the ball home from a measured cross by Miralem Pjanic. That looked like it, but in the first minute of stoppage time, Jimmy Briand lobbed Hugo Lloris to snatch a well-deserved point. Worse news for Les Gones was Karim Benzema leaving the fray on a stretcher with what looks like a serious hip injury.

Three of the four chasers all won, with only Toulouse dropping points, drawing away at Auxerre. The goals of Ireneusz Jelen have hauled Auxerre from danger and into mid-table and he was on target again, beating the offside trap and tucking it home beneath the body of the on-rushing keeper Cedric Carrasso 25 minutes in. Toulouse were much better after the break, but still had to wait until ten minutes from the end when Bryan Bergougnoux volleyed in with h is first touch of the game having come off the bench to rescue a point. Once again, it was PSG who were the big winners, this time a 4-1 success over tumbling Nancy. Early goals from Guillaume Hoarau and Ludovic Giuly set them on their way with the Nancy defence all over the place. Julien Féret gave the Lorraine side some hope, curling in from close to the touchline and over Mickaël Landreau, but Hoarau's second before the break restored the two-goal advantage. Claude Makelele is still putting in some great performances and he released Stéphane Sessegnon who interchanged passes with Hoarau before slotting the ball home to make it 4-1. Marseille dominated the game at Caen, as one would expect, but some obdurate defending and profligate finishing meant that OM had to wait for their winner. Sylvain Wiltord and Benoit Cheyrou both went close before Brandao eventually put Eric Gerets' men ahead - the Brazilian's first goal for the club since his switch from Shakhtar Donetsk. Ivorian striker Bakari Koné was carried off with a suspected broken ankle early in the piece and faces a long spell out of the game, seriously damaging Marseille's title ambitions. Bordeaux got back to winning ways over Lorient, but only after a slow start that Christian Gourcuff's side couldn't take advantage. His son and Bordeaux playmaker Yoann couldn't get into the game, but Bordeaux did get better collectively as time went on and were rarely threatened themselves. The breakthrough came shortly after the break, Marouane Chamakh blasting home from the edge of the box from Fernando Cavenaghi's pass.

Lorient are in ninth place, but only five clear of the drop zone, meaning that it's spectacularly tight down there. Le Havre, however, are eleven adrift at the bottom and they went down again, losing to Le Mans, themselves still nowhere near safe. Modibo Maiga and Gervinho got the goals to put Le Mans tenth. Sochaux remain in the last relegation place, but backed up their terrific win last week with another one, by a single goal over Nice. They completely outplayed the southerners but only had Vaclav Sverkos' second half goal to show for it, but that was enough to secure the points. Sverkos' goals will go a long way to determining their fate. Valenciennes kept up their great run with another win over European hopefuls Lille, stretching the unbeaten streak to nine. Two goals in five first half minutes did it for them, Gaël Danic and Jean-Claude Darcheville the scorers, and when Lille did threaten, they found VA keeper Nicolas Penneteau in terrific form.

Nantes and Grenoble are both fighting relegation battles and a draw helps neither of them. Nantes went ahead through Ivan Klasnic, the Croatian latching onto a poor clearance seven minutes from half time. That looked like being enough to seal three valuable points, but Sandy Paillot's header came three minutes into second half stoppage time as Nantes struggled to clear their lines. St Etienne blew yet another lead, this time against Monaco who themselves are still not safe. Frédéric Nimani put Monaco ahead, but goals from Dimitri Payet and Daisuke Matsui gave Les Verts the lead and 29 minutes to hang onto it. They lasted 28 when Monaco fashioned an equaliser with a super passing movement ending with Chi Young Park sliding the ball through to Yohan Mollo who tucked it past Jeremie Janot to square it up.