Bordeaux took a step closer to clinching the French league title with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Le Mans on Saturday.
The victory took them to the top of the table with a three-point lead over Marseille and two league matches remaining.
Bordeaux were among the early contenders for the title before dropping back with some lackluster results at the turn of the year.
However, some unexpected slip-ups from Lyon, and a late resurgence which has seen Bordeaux win their past nine game, has put them back in the race.
Yoann Gourcuff was inspirational, helping set up Marouane Chamakh’s equalizer in the 38th minute before giving the hosts the lead on the stroke of half-time then setting up Marc Planus for the match winner on 76 minutes.
Le Mans, to their credit, came in search of the points and had taken the lead through Anthony Le Tallec in the 24th minute before he scored again eight minutes after the restart.
In other matches, relegation-threatened Saint-Etienne were left in despair after an 89th minute equalizer from French international Andre Pierre Gignac gave UEFA Cup-chasing Toulouse a share of the spoils.
Monaco opened the scoring through Park Chu-young in their match with Valenciennes, who leveled in the 61st minute.
Caen were left cherishing a 2-0 win, only their eighth of the season, over Sochaux as the Normandy side continue their battle to beat the drop.
Lorient could only manage a 1-1 draw with already-relegated Le Havre while Grenoble and Nancy played to a scoreless draw while Paris Saint-Germain crashed to a home defeat against Auxerre.
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