St Etienne halt Montpellier charge: Ligue 1 reviews

Bordeaux P-P Auxerre
Boulogne 1-3 Le Mans
Nice 1-0 Lorient
Grenoble 0-1 Valenciennes
Lens 3-0 Monaco
St Etienne 1-0 Montpellier
PSG 1-0 Toulouse
Marseille 3-1 Nancy
Sochaux 0-4 Lyon
Rennes 1-2 Lille

With Bordeaux not playing, Montpellier had the chance to go level with the champions if they could beat lowly St Etienne. Substitute Emmanuel Riviere turned in a Blaise Matuidi cross late on to deny the southerners. That slip allowed Lille to close within a point as they won away at Rennes, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a last-minute winner. Pierre-Alain Frau had given LOSC the lead on ten minutes only for Jerome Leroy to level it quarter of an hour later. Lyon are a point further back after a first-half hat-trick from Michel Bastos helped them to a big win over Sochaux. Lisandro Lopez added a fourth late on for Les Gones. Another hat-trick, this time from Mamadou Niang, saw Marseille to a healthy win over Nancy. His first came ten minutes in, but Nancy were level through Andre Luiz within three minutes. Niang sent OM into half-time in front and added a third twenty minutes from time to wrap up the win. And they still have that game in hand to come.

Down at the bottom, Grenoble lost yet again, at home to Valenciennes, Carlos Sanchez with the only goal of the game. Le Mans won the big six-pointer against Boulogne and did it quite convincingly. Two goals in three minutes around the half-hour put them en route to victory, Mathieu Dossevi and Grégory Cerdan sending Le Mans into half time in good order. Mustapha Yatabaré pulled one back halfway through the second half, but Modibo Maiga sealed it in the last minute. They remain six points behind Nice and safety though as Loic Remy's penalty earned Nice all three points against Lorient.

The pressure on Antoine Kombouaré was eased slightly thanks to a win over bipolar Toulouse. Albin Ebondo was sent off for Les Violets 22 minutes into the game and Guillaume Hoarau scored the resultant penalty. They couldn't add to that despite the extra man, but it's a valuable three points for the Parisians. Monaco's slump continues as they went down heavily up in Lens. Issam Jemaa and Sébastien Roudet sent the Sang et Or into the break two up and a Henri Nsame penalty early in the second half sent Monaco crashing.