Rennes close the gap on listless Lyon

Stade Rennais FC cut Olympique Lyonnais' lead at the top of Ligue 1 to just two points after winning 1-0 at home to Grenoble Foot 38, while the French champions were held to a 1-1 draw at home to FC Lorient.

Lyon held
Moussa Sow scored the only goal 12 seconds after the restart with a terrific strike from the edge of the area as Rennes stretched their unbeaten run to 18 league matches to climb to second and add to the pressure on Lyon. Ederson put the champions ahead on nine minutes only for Fabrice Abriel to hit back three minutes before the break, leaving Lyon with just one win in their past six league matches. FC Girondins de Bordeaux could move to within a point of Lyon should they beat sixth-place Paris St-Germain FC on Sunday. Olympique de Marseille also made up ground on the leaders with a 2-0 win at AJ Auxerre, Mamadou Samassa (41) and Mathieu Valbuena (75) scoring in each half.

Cold snap
With cold weather affecting matches across France Valenciennes FC's game with SM Caen, Le Mans UC 72's trip to LOSC Lille Métropole and AS Nancy-Lorraine's match against OGC Nice were all called off. Toulouse FC won 1-0 at bottom-side Le Havre AC, who finished with nine men, to move up to fifth in the table. Le Havre had Jamel Aït Ben Idir sent off on 21 minutes but it was not until Florian Marange was also dismissed 16 minutes into the second half that the balance swung Toulouse's way with Etienne Didot's 79th-minute strike making sure of the points. Toulouse's evening might have been easier had Ligue 1 top scorer André-Pierre Gignac not missed a first-half penalty. 

Nantes win
Elsewhere, FC Nantes picked up an important 2-1 win away to AS Monaco FC, despite the 76th-minute dismissal of Mamadou Bagayoko, to pull six points clear of the drop zone. And in the meeting of 17th and 18th-placed sides Damien Perquis' 66th-minute strike earned FC Sochaux-Montbéliard a 1-0 win at home to AS Saint-Etienne, who had Mustapha Bayal Sall sent off late on, to move within two points of their rivals for the drop.