Auxerre climbed to the top of the table as Rennes hammered Toulouse and Nice's revival continued.
Victories for Auxerre, Rennes, Nice and Boulougne
Auxerre climbed to the top of the table as Rennes hammered Toulouse and Nice's revival continued.
Benoit Pedretti's injury-time winner saw off spirited
Le Mans and sent
Auxerre top of the Ligue 1 table.
Pedretti struck just two minutes after Thorstein Helstad thought he had snatched a point for Le Mans to keep the hosts firmly in the hunt for their second league title and first since 1996.
Victory moved Auxerre, for whom Ireneusz Jelen opened the scoring in the first half, two points clear of Bordeaux, although the defending champions have two games in hand.
Asamoah Gyan struck twice as
Rennes crushed
Toulouse to climb to seventh place.
The opening goal came as Jerome Leroy's free-kick was headed powerfully past Yohann Pele by Petter Hansson.
Rennes moved 2-0 in front after 35 minutes when Briand burst forward from his own half before feeding Gyan to his left in the penalty area, and his right-footed shot went through the legs of Pele.
The goalkeeper was replaced by Mathieu Valverde at half-time due to injury and he was immediately beaten as Gyan scored again, a minute into the second half.
Toulouse gave themselves some hope in the 51st minute when Cheikh M'Bengue played in Daniel Braaten to slot home with his left foot, but Jires Kembo Ekoko smashed home a right-footed shot in the closing moments.
Revival
Nice's revival under new coach Eric Roy continued as the southern side moved nine points clear of the relegation zone with a hard-fought home victory over
Paris St Germain.
Loic Remy scored the only goal of the game 11 minutes from time at the Stade Municipal du Ray, in a match which was played behind closed doors following crowd trouble in Nice's game at Monaco in January.
Boulogne boosted their survival prospects with a second straight victory - 2-0 over
Lorient.
Damien Marcq's 13th-minute opener and an own goal from Laurent Koscielny after 52 minutes earned Boulogne their latest success.
Rock-bottom
Grenoble and out-of-sorts
Monaco shared the spoils in a topsy-turvy goalless draw at the Stade des Alpes.
Both sides enjoyed periods of domination without making the breakthrough, while even the dismissal of Grenoble goalkeeper Jody Viviani in the 80th minute could not result in a goal.
St Etienne and
Nancy were unable to trouble the scorers, with the home side now eight points above the relegation zone.
Lens and
Sochaux played out the third stalemate of the day, with the point for each club keeping them in the lower reaches of the table, but clear of the bottom three.
