Angers go clear in second; Montpellier move out of bottom three

Ten-man Angers held on for a valuable point that saw
them move a point clear in second in the Ligue 1 table
following a 0-0 draw with Guingamp.
The visitors began brightly and thought they'd grabbed
the lead in the 26th minute when Younousse Sankhare
headed Nicolas Benezet's delivery beyond Ludovic
Butelle - but the linesman's flag cut short their
celebrations.
Jimmy Briand proved to be a thorn in the hosts' side
and he teed up Benezet early in the second half, only for
the youngster to drag his shot wide of Butelle's goal.
Angers' night was made more difficult when substitute
Slimane Sissoko was shown a straight red with 10
minutes to play for a two-footed lunge but, despite that
disadvantage, the hosts almost stole the points when
Cheikh Ndoye's header crashed against the bar.
Struggling Ajaccio stunned in-form Nice 3-1 as the
Corsican side secured its first win ever in the French
topflight.
Goals from Gregory Pujol, Roderic Filippi and Damjan
Djokovic ended a run of four consecutive wins for the
Riviera outfit, the league's best attacking team.
Nice, which scored 17 goals in its past four matches,
could not play with its usual pace and gave the ball
away too frequently after conceding in the first minute
when Pujol put the promoted side ahead with a volley
from a tight angle.
Never before had Ajaccio scored three goals in one
match in the first division.
Lorient and Rennes took a share of the spoils at the
Stade du Moustoir in a 1-1 draw which saw both sides
finish the game with 10 men.
The hosts took the lead 25 minutes in when Majeed
Waris did well to get the better of Steven Moreira before
Raphael Guerreiro hammered home as the ball
ricocheted about in the Rennes area.
Lorient's chances of holding on to a fifth win of the
season took a blow, though, when Lamine Kone was
shown his second yellow midway through the second
half and Rennes took full advantage a few minutes later.
Benjamin Lecomte appeared to keep out Kamil
Grosicki's whipped free-kick but goal-line technology
ruled in favour of the visitors before they were also
reduced to 10 men when Giovanni Sio was given his
marching orders late on.
Montpellier moved out of the Ligue 1 bottom three on
goal difference thanks to a 2-0 home win against
Bastia.
The visitors are yet to win on the road this season and
that record looked set to continue when Ryad Boudebouz
opened the scoring for the hosts.
The former Bastia man's neat finish from just inside the
area proved to the catalyst for his previous employer's
downfall.
Delvin Ndinga made sure of the points when he
acrobatically steered the ball beyond Jean-Louis Leca
on 88 minutes to cap a successful evening for MHSC.