Montpellier squandered the opportunity to leapfrog Bordeaux at the Ligue 1 summit as they were thrashed 4-1 by Lille.
Lille thrash Montpellier; Dia hits a hat-trick; Nice make it three on the spin
Montpellier squandered the opportunity to leapfrog Bordeaux at the Ligue 1 summit as they were thrashed 4-1 by Lille, who are now just two points off top spot themselves.
Elsewhere, Nancy were big winners in Sunday's action, PSG were comfortable in seeing off Boulogne and Nice made it a hat-trick of victories under Eric Roy.
Strugglers St Etienne were on the receiving end of a heavy defeat to Lorient and Jimmy Briand was the hero for Rennes as his double saw off Le Mans.
Lille swept aside title rivals
Montpellier to move to within two points of leaders Bordeaux.
The hosts scored three times in the second half after Souleymane Camara's equaliser a minute after the break for Montpellier had cancelled out Gervinho's opener.
A Yohan Cabaye penalty and goals from Pierre-Alain Frau and Larsen Toure took the game away from the visitors, who remain level on points with Bordeaux.
Laurent Blanc's men have two games in hand, though, and Lille and Montpellier will both be hoping their UEFA Champions League campaign proves a distraction in the run-in.
Issiar Dia hit a hat-trick as
Nancy ran riot in their Ligue 1 clash with
Lens at Stade Marcel Picotthis.
Youssouf Hadji and Pascal Berenguer also netted for the hosts with all their goals coming in a 25-minute spell either side of half-time.
Issam Jemaa's 90th-minute penalty was scant consolation for well-beaten Lens.
Kevin Gameiro scored twice as
Lorient crushed struggling
St Etienne in Ligue 1 on Sunday afternoon.
Morgan Amalfitano and Sebastian Dubarbier were also on target to leave the visitors with work still to do to retain their top-flight status.
The hosts were the better side throughout and could have won by an even greater margin were it not for St Etienne goalkeeper Jeremie Janot.
Nice made it a hat-trick of victories since new manager Eric Roy took charge as goals from Anthony Mounier and Eric Mouloungui saw off
Toulouse.
Roy had guided Nice to successive 1-0 wins over Le Mans and Paris St Germain before this trip, to lift them comfortably clear of the Ligue 1 relegation zone.
From a position of potential peril, the Cote d'Azur club now look certain to survive for another season in the top flight.
Mounier put them ahead after 40 minutes, with Mouloungui doubling the lead with seven minutes left.
Two late strikes from Jimmy Briand sewed up all three points for
Rennes after they had been pegged back by hosts
Le Mans.
Ismael Bangoura scored a first-half penalty and after Mathieu Dossevi had levelled, Briand struck in the last five minutes to keep Le Mans deep in relegation trouble.
The home side had started the match second bottom in Ligue 1 but even the appointment of general manager Michel Moulin could not inspire them to a much needed victory.
Paris St Germain cruised to a comfortable win against
Boulogne which moved them up to mid-table in Ligue 1.
As good as PSG were in parts, most of Boulogne's wounds were self-inflicted as they gifted the hosts an own goal and a penalty and also played for 62 minutes with 10 men following the dismissal of Bakary Soumare.
Stephane Sessegnon opened the scoring shortly before Soumare's red card with Guillaume Hoarau's spot-kick and Mateja Kezman's close-range strike rounding off the scoring.
