Lille and Montpellier lead Bordeaux chase

LOSC Lille Métropole and Montpellier Hérault SC won, 4-0 at AS Nancy-Lorraine and 2-1 at Olympique Lyonnais respectively, to move second and third in Ligue 1 but FC Girondins de Bordeaux marched on at the summit.

Marseille slump
Olympique de Marseille started the day as closest challengers to the runaway leaders but fell back to fourth in the standings as Dennis Oliech's double gave visitors AJ Auxerre a 2-0 victory and a place in the top five at the end of 2009. OM have failed to score in their last two matches, which could not be more of a contrast to Lille. Les Dogues earned their sixth straight league victory and took their goal tally in those encounters to 23 with a cruise at Nancy. Eden Hazard's 42nd-minute opener was added to after the break by Gervinho's brace and Pierre-Alan Frau's penalty, while the hosts lost Joël Sami to a red card.

Wendel winner
Lyon are now 13 points off the pace in sixth as Montpellier took the honours at the Stade de Gerland with Joris Marveaux's 86th-minute winner downing the home side after Bafetimbi Gomis had cancelled out Victor Montaño's opener on 53 minutes. Toulouse FC's Paulo Machado and Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh traded early strikes in their meeting but, after Cheikh Mbengue was sent off 17 minutes from time, Wendel secured a 2-1 success for the champions, whose lead is now an ominous nine points. Paris Saint-Germain FC, FC Sochaux-Montbéliard and FC Lorient also picked up victories on Wednesday – RC Lens had won a day earlier – while there were draws between Le Mans UC 72 and AS Monaco FC, and OGC Nice and US Boulogne.