Bordeaux beat Toulouse 2-1 and increased its lead to nine points
halfway through the French league on Wednesday.
Through 19 matches, defending champion Bordeaux tops the
standings with 43 points. Lille, which routed Nancy 4-0 to earn its
sixth straight league win, climbed to second place with 34 points.
Also on Wednesday, it was: Marseille 0, Auxerre 2; Lyon 1,
Montpellier 2; Sochaux 2, Rennes 0; Lorient 3, Valenciennes 2;
Paris Saint-Germain 4, Grenoble 0; Le Mans 1, Monaco 1; and Nice 2,
Boulogne 2.
Lens edged Saint-Etienne 1-0 on Tuesday.
Montpellier rose to third with 33 points, Marseille slipped
to fourth with 32, level on points with Auxerre in fifth, while
Lyon fell to sixth with 30.
Paulo Machado opened the scoring for Toulouse from the edge
of the box after four minutes against Bordeaux.
Marouane Chamakh headed in a cross from Benoit Tremoulinas to
equalize four minutes later.
The turning point in the match occurred when Cheikh M'Bengue
was sent off in the 73rd for picking up a second yellow card. The
Toulouse defender fouled Chamakh, who was bearing down on goal.
Geraldo Wendel hit the winning goal from the ensuing free
kick that deflected off Toulouse defender Mohamed Fofana.
In Nancy, Eden Hazard took a low cross from Gervinho and spun
to score in the 42nd.
Gervinho converted a rebound to make it 2-0 in the 51st.
Nancy was reduced to 10 men in the 60th after Joel Sami
fouled Gervinho. Pierre-Alain Frau converted the penalty kick to
notch his ninth goal this season.
Gervinho then outpaced the Nancy defense to slip the ball
past goalkeeper Gennaro Bracigliano in the 73rd, to become the
league-leading scorer with 11.
In Marseille, Daniel Niculae fed forward Dennis Oliech, who
beat goalkeeper Steve Mandanda in the 41st.
Oliech then collected a throughball from Roy Contout to
double the lead in the 79th.
"We wanted to attack but unfortunately we got hit twice on
the fast break," Marseille centerback Souleymane Diawara told Foot
Plus television. "Auxerre defended well, too. We didn't manage to
score. We feel sad tonight."
Injuries forced Marseille to replace defender Laurent Bonnart
and midfielder Lucho Gonzalez in the first half-hour.
In Lyon, Victor Hugo Montano curled a shot into the top
corner to put Montpellier ahead in the 53rd.
Lyon equalized in the 83rd with a header from Bafetimbi
Gomis.
But two minutes later, Lyon left Joris Marveaux unmarked on a
free kick and the Montpellier midfielder beat goalkeeper Hugo
Lloris from close range for the victory.
"We must come back in the (title) race and show our real
level again," Lyon manager Claude Puel told Europe 1 radio. "We'll
have to show a different face. We were competitive in the first
three months. Then we showed the complete opposite in December."
In Sochaux, Stephane Dalmat pounced on a loose ball to score
on the stroke of halftime.
Edouard Butin beat the offside trap in the 60th to skip past
goalkeeper Nicolas Douchez and secure the victory for Sochaux.
Rennes was one man down in the 11th after Ghana forward
Asamoah Gyan was red-carded for swinging an arm into Damien
Perquis' head.
Sochaux remained in 15th place with 25 points while Rennes
slipped to ninth place with 29 points.
In Lorient, the host team rallied past Valenciennes with a
header from Franco Sosa in the 65th.
Lorient initially got off to a bad start when goalkeeper
Fabien Audard missed his clearance kick, letting Johan Audel score
into an empty net in the fifth.
Morgan Amalfitano converted a rebound to level for Lorient in
the 24th.
Gael Danic then cut inside to fire home in the 35th and give
the lead back to Valenciennes.
But Amalfitano diverted in an off-target shot from Kevin
Gameiro to equalize moments into the second half.
Lorient moved into eighth place with 29 points, one clear of
mid-table Valenciennes.
In Paris, Peguy Luyindula took a pass from Christophe Jallet
to notch his sixth goal this season in the ninth.
PSG fullback Sylvain Armand doubled the lead in the 18th,
heading home a cross from playmaker Stephane Sessegnon.
Mevlut Erding added a third goal in the 65th before
Christophe Jallet sealed the win with a free kick in the 80th.
PSG climbed to seventh place with 29 points as Grenoble
stayed in last place with seven points.
In Le Mans, forward Thorstein Helstad played Anthony Le
Tallec in with a headed pass and Le Tallec unleashed a low shot in
the 36th.
But Park Chu-Young tucked home a cross from Francois-Joseph
Modesto to grab his sixth goal this season and tie the game for
Monaco in the 50th.
In Nice, Mickael Pote helped the hosts rally twice.
Boulogne took the lead when Damien Perrinelle nodded in a
corner kick in the 58th.
Pote leveled with a header in the 67th before Jeremy Blayac
on a counterattack helped Boulogne recapture the lead in the 73rd.
But Pote followed up to salvage a draw in the 85th after
goalkeeper Jean-Francois Bedenik denied Loic Remy.
Boulogne remained in the relegation zone with 13 points, nine
behind Nice in 16th place.
