Lyon failed to take advantage of slips by St Etienne and Lille as they lost 2-0 at Nancy - their eighth away defeat of the Ligue 1 season.
Second-half goals from Sebastien Puygrenier and Djamel Bakar gave Jean Fernandez's strugglers a morale-boosting win on another difficult night for Les Gones.
Nancy had the first chance of the night in the ninth minute - but Puygrenier fired over after good work by Lossemy Karaboue and Daniel Niculae.
Bafetimbi Gomis went close for Lyon in the 21st minute, lobbing goalkeeper Ndy Assembe but seeing his shot also clear the bar.
Three minutes later Assembe blocked Bakary Kone's deflection from Michel Bastos' free-kick.
But Karaboue was inches wide for the hosts from 30 yards after half an hour, after Salif Sane had created the opening.
And Nancy, who started the contest in the relegation zone, would have taken the lead four minutes later had Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris not expertly blocked Yohan Mollo's powerful header.
The home side started the second half brightly and Kone was fortunate not to score an own goal when he got in the way of a clearance from Cris but saw it go narrowly wide.
Lloris saved from Nicolae in the 59th minute - but the home side had the lead seven minutes later when Puygrenier headed in Mollo's corner at the near post.
Eight minutes later it was 2-0 when a neat counter-attack ended with Karaboue setting up Bakar for a curling left-foot shot which gave Lloris no chance.
Lyon finished strongly and an entertaining finish might have been on the cards had Kone's header from Kim Kallstrom's 85th-minute free-kick gone in instead of skimming a post.
Remi Garde's side continued to press but the final chance came and went two minutes into injury-time when Assembe made an excellent reflex save to deny Ederson.
