Rennes went fourth in Ligue 1 and added pressure on Monaco manager Leonardo Jardim with a 2-0 victory at the Route de Lorient.
A 10th-minute own goal from Aymen Abdennour put the hosts in front and Ola Toivonen volleyed a second eight minutes later as they made it three wins in a row. Rennes went into the game buoyed by back-to-back 1-0 wins and it did not take them long to take the lead. Paul-Georges Ntep raced down the left and beat Andrea Raggo before firing the ball across goal. In attempting to clear it, Abdennour could only divert the cross into his own net.
Ntep's pace was key to Rennes' second too. He made ground down the left, crossing for Toivonen to fire home from close range. Monaco were reeling but they regrouped and almost levelled in the 26th minute, a fine team move ending in Lucas Ocampos seeing his header blocked by Benoit Costil.
But the visitors could not live with Ntep. Again he blazed down the left before crossing towards Abdoulaye Doucoure, who was unable to capitalize. Monaco threatened an equaliser on the hour mark when Anthony Martial's cross was met by Elderson Echiejile, whose right-footed shot was punched clear by Costil.
At the other end Ntep's cross picked out Vincent Pajot, but Danijel Subasic at full stretch kept out his header. Costil then saved well from Yannick Carrasco and even more impressively from Nabil Dirar as Monaco finished strongly, but they had left themselves too much to do as Rennes stood firm.
Caen are out of the Ligue 1 relegation zone following a 1-1 draw against Montpellier.
Hilton put the visitors ahead after 17 minutes but Mathieu Duhamel got the equalizer as Caen's winless run was extended to four games. Despite that indifferent form, Patrice Garande's men are up to 16th in the table while Montpellier are ninth.
Lens ended a run of three successive Ligue 1 defeats with a 2-0 victory over Metz which lifts them off the foot of the table.
Antoine Kombouare's side had won only three matches all season heading into Saturday's encounter at Stade Bollaert-Delelis, but second-half goals from Alharbi El Jadeyaoui and Benjamin Bourigeaud sealed a deserved three points.
Metz, however, have lost three on the trot with just four points separating them from the bottom three.
In the day's remaining game, Lorient put a slither of daylight between themselves and the relegation zone after fighting back from a goal down to beat Toulouse 3-2, making it two wins from two in the process.
Toulouse led at half-time through Tongo Doumbia's strike but Lorient turned the match on its head during a five-minute blitz at the start of the second half when they netted three times through Raphael Guerreiro, Benjamin Jeannot and Jordan Ayew. Aleksandar Pesic pulled a goal back for the hosts 20 minutes from time, but Lorient held on for the victory and are now two points above the bottom three.
