LOSC and Monaco put pressure on Paris

Ten-man LOSC Lille eked out a 1-0 victory at neighbouring Valenciennes FC to move within a point of Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain, after rivals AS Monaco FC had seen off Stade Rennais FC 2-0.

With Paris entertaining Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday, LOSC took advantage to keep the pressure up at the summit against northern neighbours Valenciennes. Half-time substitute Ronny Rodelin turned in a Pape Souaré cross seconds after coming on to put the visitors ahead, and they survived Franck Béria's 52nd-minute dismissal to keep their tenth consecutive clean sheet in league play.

One point back, Monaco made light of the absence of injured forward Falcao as they took maximum points at home against Rennes. James Rodríguez opened the scoring with a fine free-kick on 19 minutes and Anthony Martial doubled the advantage just before half-time to keep the principality club five points clear of Olympique de Marseille, who downed Montpellier Hérault SC 2-0 on Friday.

AS Saint-Étienne lie fifth after sweeping aside Stade de Reims 4-0, Loïc Perrin weighing in with a double. Les Verts leapt ahead of FC Nantes, who succumbed 1-0 at EA Guingamp. Elsewhere, Wissam Ben Yedder struck a hat-trick as Toulouse FC dispatched FC Sochaux-Montbéliard 5-1 and FC Lorient overcame OGC Nice 3-0.