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Lens score three to shock six-time champions Lyon

Second-half goals from Toifilou Maoulida, Milan Bisevac and Kader Mangane earned relegation-haunted Lens a 3-0 victory over six-time champions Lyon on Sunday in the shock of the weekend in the French league.

Nice had earlier beaten Nancy 1-0 to jump a place into fourth spot but it was the Lens victory which earned the headlines.

Maoulida had the best chance of the match early in the first half for Lens when, with just Gregory Coupet to beat, the Lyon goalkeeper made a good save diving at his feet.

Midfield deadlock and moves which came to nothing characterized much of the match until the 55th minute goal which sent Lyon on their way to just their fifth defeat of the season after 21 matches.

A Nadir Belhadj cross found Mounir Diane but the danger was cleared before another center found Maoulida at the far post. His header left Coupet no chance.

Bisevac made the game safe in the 70th minute.

A great corner from Olivier Monterrubio found Bisevac whose glancing header easily beat Coupet. Then Mangane added a third in the 90th minute, tapping home into an empty net.

Lyon still lead the table with 42 points, from Bordeaux in second on 39, Nancy on 36 and Nice on 35.

Nice has David Hellebuyck's 20m effort in the 69th minute to thank for their win over Nancy.

A Paris Saint Germain defeat to Lorient stalled their mini-revival. Winning their past two league games had helped PSG move out of the drop zone towards mid-table, and a 4-0 French League Cup drubbing of Valenciennes with only 10 men in midweek appeared to signal a definitive turnaround.

PSG coach Paul Le Guen admitted there was no reason to believe that PSG had left the worst behind them.

"Before this match we'd only managed to secure two consecutive league wins so we had no right to get carried away," the coach said.

Meanwhile, a brace of goals from Djibril Cisse and another from Julien Rodriguez helped Marseille earn an impressive 3-1 home victory against Valenciennes.

Johan Audel pulled a late goal back for fifth-placed Valenciennes.

Even though Marseille lacked rhythm, coach Eric Gerets' team rediscovered the form which earned them a run of seven matches without defeat at the end of last year.
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