Lethal Lyon stretch Ligue 1 lead

By Chris Burke

Olympique Lyonnais moved a step closer to a fourth consecutive Ligue 1 title with a 2-0 victory away against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard that took the French champions six points clear at the top, while AS Monaco FC climbed up into third after winning at FC Istres.

Birthday strike
With Sylvain Wiltord sidelined, Lyon coach Paul Le Guen handed Bryan Bergougnoux a first league start on his 22nd birthday, and the young striker had cause to celebrate after just six minutes as he rounded off Pierre-Alain Frau's fine counterattack. UEFA Cup hopefuls Sochaux never troubled the leaders and saw whatever slim chance they had of pulling level ended by Mahamadou Diarra's 42nd-minute header as Lyon extended their unbeaten record into 2005.

Auxerre slip
After LOSC Lille Métropole's loss to Olympique de Marseille on Tuesday night, AJ Auxerre missed the chance to keep the pressure on Le Guen's side by suffering a 1-0 defeat at Stade Rennais FC, for whom Alexander Frei scored his eighth goal of the season. Guy Roux's side therefore slipped a point behind Monaco, who had to rely on Souleymane Camara's cool finish to earn a 1-0 win that left new Istres coaching duo Xavier Gravelaine and Jean-Louis Gasset seven points adrift of the safety mark.

Le Dizet debut
Another coach making his Ligue 1 debut was Serge Le Dizet, and his FC Nantes Atlantique team fared slightly better. Their 0-0 draw away at SC Bastia took them up to 16th, while Bastia remained in the relegation places, just ahead of Corsican neighbours AC Ajaccio, who were defeated at FC Metz due to Grégory Proment's late free-kick. RC Strasbourg also fell further into trouble after going down 2-0 to sixth-placed FC Toulouse.

Nice spectacle
Elsewhere, OGC Nice were involved in yet another high-scoring encounter. Twice they led visitors FC Girondins de Bordeaux only to be pegged back and Bordeaux seemingly had the match won after Marouane Chamakh had put them 3-2 up. But, in the dying moments, Bordeaux goalkeeper Frédéric Roux was sent off for fouling Victor Agali in the area and Mahima Vahirua levelled from the spot, his second strike of the game. By contrast, the games between AS Saint-Etienne and RC Lens, and SM Caen and Paris Saint-Germain FC both finished goalless.