RC Strasbourg moved up to fifth in the standings after the final match of the weekend on Sunday when Christian Bassila's first half goal gave the Alsace side a 1-0 win over Monaco.

Olympique Marseille kept up their title chase with the only win for a top three team, beating RC Lens to move up to 28 points, equal with Lyon and only two points behind Nice, while Paris St Germain's woes continued.

Luis Fernandez's side suffered their first home defeat of the season on Friday, beaten 1-0 by in-form Nantes. PSG, who had looked to be title contenders earlier in the season, slipped to sixth in the standings.

Nice fought out a goalless draw with a battling bottom-of-the-table Rennes, a match which finished in darkness at the Stade du Rey on Saturday due to a last-minute floodlight failure.

'It's not a bad result, it is good to take a point...We played well in difficult conditions. They were without doubt more at ease than us in this type of game,' Nice coach Gernot Rohr told the Riviera club's website.

'Even if they are the bottom club we should not forget where we have come from,' he added.

Nice were promoted to the top flight last season, despite a Football League ruling in May that they should be relegated to the third division due to the poor state of their finances.

Lyon, missing several key players through injury, went down to two goals in five second-half minutes and, despite, pulling one back through Frederic Nee in the final moments, were unable to find the equaliser.

Vladimir Manchev scored Lille's first in the 68th minute, dribbling round goalkeeper Gregory Coupet. The Bulgarian laid on the second for midfielder Christophe Landrin five minutes later.

'It's exasperating to lose like that, especially as we conceded two goals at a moment when we had been playing well,' coach Paul Le Guen told the Lyon website.

'It's a shame as (goalkeeper) Gregory Coupet had done well and we lost the match through a lack of common sense.

'We had the quality to take points from this match but we were unable to take our chances in front of goal.'

In the rest of the weekend's matches Pedro Pauleto maintained his position as top scorer in the league with the only goal in Bordeaux's home victory over AC Ajaccio, while a fine looping strike from Finn Teemu Tainio gave Auxerre a 1-0 win at Le Havre.

Troyes edged out of the relegation zone with a glorious 2-0 victory over old rivals Sedan, who they have not beaten in division one since 1955.