Lyon win derby clash but Bordeaux slip up

Lille's French midfielder Ludovic Obraniak (R) is congratuled by his teammates, Brazilian midfielder Michel Bastos (C) and French defender Franck Beria after scoring a goal during the French L1 football match Lille vs. Bordeaux, at The Lille metropole stadium in Villeneuve d'Ascq. Lille won 2-1.

Lyon joined Marseille at the top of the French first division on Sunday after a Karim Benzema special earned the champions a 1-0 win in the derby tie at Saint Etienne.

The fast rising star of French football struck in the 55th minute with a low right-footed curving shot that eluded the diving Jody Viviani to slip in by the far post.

Benzema was replaced by Frederic Piquionne in the 73rd minute and the substitute almost struck gold with his first kick of the game, Viviani doing well to edge his shot from the right over the crossbar.

Benzema's goal had the twin effect of lifting Lyon up to ten points and on level pegging with Marseille, 2-1 winners over Sochaux 24 hours earlier, and of maintaining their unbeaten record at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium stretching back to the 1993/94 season.

This hardly unexpected defeat against a team going for an unprecedented eighth consecutive title left Saint Etienne third from bottom.

Earlier Sunday Bordeaux, touted as serious contenders to Lyon this season, lost ground on the leaders with a 2-1 loss at Lille for their second away defeat of the campaign.

Sunday's other early match resulted in a goalless draw between Toulouse and Rennes.

Last season's runners-up Bordeaux travelled north eyeing a welcome three points against a Lille side that had gone three games without a win. But they left without a point to slip to seventh.

Lyon's French forward Karim Benzema (R) is tackled by Saint-Etienne's Senegalese defender Mouhamadou Dabo (L), during the French L1 football match Saint-Etienne vs. Lyon at the Geoffroy Guichard Stadium in Saint-Etienne. Lyon defeated Saint-Etienne 1-0.

Bordeaux made the early running and went into a 28th minute lead with a fine piece of individual skill from Argentine striker Fernando Cavenaghi who controlled the ball with his chest before shooting past Gregory Malicki in the 28th minute.

Lille were back on level terms four minutes later after defender Adil Rami set up Michel Bastos, and Ludovik Obraniak inflicted the killer blow in the final quarter of an hour. The result hauled Lille out of the relegation zone.

On Saturday Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda made two crucial saves in the last five minutes to ensure a 2-1 home victory against Sochaux.

Marseille were cruising to victory through goals by Karim Ziani and Baky Kone but Mevlud Erding pulled one back on a counter attack and the same player, through and one-on-one with Mandanda with a chance for an equaliser, saw his shot brilliantly saved by the leg of the France international keeper.

Then just before the final whistle, Mandanda made a reflex save low down to his right on the goalline, from an Erding header, to once more keep Marseille's one-goal advantage.

Paris Saint Germain put last week's stuttering draw with Sochaux behind them with a 1-0 defeat of Caen to place Paul Le Guen's side in sixth spot.

Le Guen and the capital side's supporters couldn't have wished for a better start when Guillaume Hoarau shot home in the fifth minute.

PSG jumped from 11th to sixth, two points behind third-placed Le Mans who handed out a 4-1 drubbing to crisis-club Nantes to make it three wins from three.

Nice, 2-0 victors over Valenciennes, and promoted Grenoble, who beat Monaco with a 19th minute goal from striker Daniel Moreira, are also unbeaten and lying fourth and fifth.

Elsewhere Auxerre came away from their visit to Lorient with a 2-0 win and Nancy came from behind to see off Le Havre 2-1.