Bordeaux beat Lorient to move eight points clear at the top of Ligue 1, while Marseille were held by St Etienne.
Bordeaux go eight points clear as Marseille held
Defending champions Bordeaux consolidated their position at the top of Ligue 1 with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Lorient.
David Bellion scored twice in the first half for
Bordeaux while Fernando Cavenaghi and Yoann Gourcuff were also on target.
Franco Sosa missed a penalty with
Lorient trailing 2-0 before Kevin Gameiro netted a late consolation for the visitors as Laurent Blanc's side conceded for the first time in five Ligue 1 matches.
But the table-toppers moved eight points clear as second placed
Marseille were held to a goalless stalemate by ten-man
St Etienne.
Efstathios Tavlaridis was sent-off for deliberate handball in the eighth minute but the hosts held on for the draw, which moves them out of the relegation zone, with Le Mans replacing them in the bottom three.
Slumped
Third placed
Montpellier slumped to their second home league defeat in four days as they went down 2-0 to
Nancy in a game played behind closed doors.
Djamel Bakar and Pascal Berenguer struck in the first half to sink the hosts, who are now 10 points behind the league leaders.
The game was played behind closed doors as punishment for crowd trouble during Montpellier's match with Nice in August.
Ismael Bangoura's first-half goal gave
Rennes a 1-0 win over
Paris St Germain which moved them above their opponents into fourth in the table.
The game's decisive moment came six minutes before half-time when Bangoura found the target after good work by Asamoah Gyan and Alexander Tettey.
Missed chance
Valenciennes missed the chance to put pressure on their fellow European hopefuls as they were held to a goalless draw by
Lens.
The hosts, who stay in seventh in the table, dominated the match but could not find the breakthrough.
Chaouki Ben Saada struck six minutes from time to end
Nice's four-game losing streak and deny bottom side
Grenoble their second win of the Ligue 1 season.
The game seemed set for a goalless draw until Nassim Akrour gave the hosts the lead after 74 minutes.
But the advantage lasted just 10 minutes as Ben Saada finished from close range to earn his side a point.
Boulogne's clash with
Sochaux was postponed to a later date.
