Tabanou boosts Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux beat Marseille
Saint-Etienne stayed in the race for UEFA Champions League qualification with a 1-0 home victory over Nantes on Sunday.
Christophe Galtier's fifth-placed side are now unbeaten in their last seven French Ligue 1 matches but they had to rely on an unlikely scorer for their latest victory. Franck Tabanou's 18th-minute free-kick was his first goal of the season but it piled the misery on Nantes who drop down to tenth after winning only one of their last five.
Marseille's Ligue 1 title hopes suffered another setback after they made it back-to-back domestic defeats for the first time this season with a 1-0 loss at Bordeaux.
Marseille have been fighting near the top of the standings all year, but last week's 3-2 reverse against Paris Saint-Germain saw them drop five points behind Laurent Blanc's leaders. With Lyon and PSG not in action this weekend, Sunday's trip to Bordeaux was an opportunity to reduce that gap, but Cedric Yambere instead put a spanner in the works by securing a 1-0 win for Les Girondins.
Lille kept alive their slim hopes of European football next season when Sofiane Boufal's penalty gave them a 1-0 win at lowly Evian. Nolan Roux and Divock Origi passed up chances to score for Lille before Boufal was brought down by Daniel Wass nine minutes from time and the 21-year-old midfielder picked himself up to score from the spot.
Ola Toivonen's strike was enough to give Rennes a clean sweep of the Breton derbies this season as they beat Guingamp 1-0 and leave their neighbours looking anxiously over their shoulder. Guingamp were reduced to ten men after 73 minutes when Sambou Yatabare left his foot in on Cheikh M'Bengue and Toivonen punished them almost instantly with a firm shot.
There was a lot of interest at the bottom where Toulouse boosted their bid to beat the drop by overcoming Montpellier 1-0. Oscar Trejo claimed the vital goal just before half-time after Wissam Ben Yedder had jinked down the right to deliver a telling cross. Toulouse stay in the bottom three but they have drawn level with both Reims and Lorient on 35 points and are now only point behind Evian.
Lorient played out a goalless draw with bottom club Lens who had the clearer chances at the Stade De La Licorne. Lens remain nine points adrift of safety after Baptiste Guillaume, Loick Landre and Adamo Coulibaly all failed to take chances to break the deadlock.
There was no dream start to life in charge of Reims for Olivier Guegan as his side were beaten 1-0 by Nice. A drop towards the relegation zone did for Jean-Luc Vasseur but his former assistant Guegan was unable to get a winning beginning as Said Benrahma scored the only goal of the game. Reims are only out of the bottom three by virtue of one goal but Nice's second consecutive away win gives them some breathing space as they are now six points above the relegation zone.