Jean Tigana quit as Girondins de Bordeaux coach on Saturday after fans abused his teenage daughter during a damaging 4-0 home loss to Sochaux, while Lille opened up a four-point lead at the league summit.
Tigana replaced Laurent Blanc last summer, but has been unable to reinvigorate the 2009 champions, who are 12 points short of the Champions League places. Brown Ideye broke the deadlock in the ninth minute, with Damien Perquis capitalizing on slack marking to head home a second two minutes later.
With Lorient held 0-0 at home by Toulouse, the emphatic win lifted Sochaux into sixth place, which is likely to yield a Europa League berth because of Lille and Paris Saint-Germain’s involvement in the French Cup final.
In Saturday’s late game, a lackluster Lille edged third-bottom Nancy 1-0 to go four points clear of second-placed Olympique de Marseille at the top of the table.
Lille will now cross their fingers for a favor from Olympique Lyonnais, who were to host defending champions Marseille yesterday in one of the traditional highlights of the French domestic calendar.
Earlier, PSG inched past Lyon into third place in the race for Champions League soccer after a 1-1 draw at Monaco.
PSG could have gone three points clear of Lyon, who occupied the third and final Champions League qualifying spot going into the weekend, but they had to settle for a point against an obdurate Monaco side.
Elsewhere on Saturday, a first-half Alejandro Alonso penalty saw Saint-Etienne to a 1-0 win at relegated Arles-Avignon that took les Verts to within a point of sixth spot.
Auxerre gave their bid to avoid the drop another fillip with a 1-0 defeat of Montpellier that lifted them to 12th.
Second-bottom Lens drew 1-1 at Stade Malherbe Caen, but demotion to Ligue 2 remains all but inevitable as they are now eight points from safety with only four games to play.
In other action, Stade Brestois 29 and Nice played to a scoreless draw.
US track and field athletes have about four dozen pieces to choose from when assembling their uniforms at the Olympics. The one grabbing the most attention is a high-cut leotard that barely covers the bikini line and has triggered debate between those who think it is sexist and others who say they do not need the Internet to make sure they have good uniforms. Among those critical or laughing at the uniforms included Paralympian Femita Ayanbeku, sprinter Britton Wilson and even athletes from other countries such as Britain’s Abigail Irozuru, who wrote on social media: “Was ANY female athlete consulted in
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