Lille kept up the pressure on Marseille by returning to the top as Lens' survival hopes suffered a setback.
Lille go back to top as Lens let late lead slip
Lille kept up the pressure on title rivals Marseille by returning to the top of the table as Lens' survival hopes suffered a setback.
Highly-rated Gervinho scored a first-half brace as
Lille went back to the summit thanks to a 5-0 thrashing of bottom club
Arles.
Gervinho scored after just six minutes and the striker netted again just before half-time, with Mathieu Debuchy's penalty making it 3-0 on 49 minutes.
Arles had Emmanuel Correze sent off prior to the hour mark before late goals from Yohan Cabaye and David Rozehnal put the gloss on a comfortable win.
Lens remain eight points from safety after throwing away the lead to suffer a last-gasp 3-2 home defeat at the hands of
Lorient.
Kevin Gameiro, another striker in Ligue 1 to be attracting interest from across Europe, opened the scoring for Lorient after 20 minutes.
However, two goals in as many minutes from Yohan Demont and Eduardo before half-time appeared likely to give Lens the points.
Gameiro, though, equalised for the visitors with seven minutes to go and Morgan Amalfitano converted a penalty two minutes into stoppage-time to earn Lorient the win.
Paris St Germain remain in the chase for UEFA Champions League qualification following a 3-1 home win over
Valenciennes.
Nene provided PSG with the lead after just 10 minutes and the hosts were in control by the midway point of the first half when Mathieu Bodmer added a second.
But Valenciennes pulled a goal back before half-time through Gregory Pujol and it was not until Mamadou Sakho's goal two minutes from full-time that PSG made the game safe.
Bordeaux dropped down to eighth place in the table following a 0-0 draw away to fifth-placed
Rennes.
Sochaux moved up a couple of places in the standings after battling for a 1-0 home win over struggling
Nancy.
Edouard Butin scored the game's only goal after 11 minutes, but Nancy were left to rue Alexander Cuvillier's missed penalty on 56 minutes.
