PSG continue winning form

Paris St Germain's impressive run continued as a perfect performance from the capital club saw them inflict a second Ligue 1 defeat of the season on champions Lyon.

Ludovic Giuly headed home the only goal of the game in the 25th minute to secure his team's third victory on the trot and help them continue their push up the table.

It was an injury-hit Lyon side that turned up at the Parc des Princes, which made it even more surprising that coach Claude Puel decided to omit captain Juninho from the starting line-up.

However, the former Brazil international did himself no favours when he was sent off 15 minutes after coming off the bench.

Lyon remains five points clear at the summit, however, with Nice's fourth successive victory seeing them move up to second.

A solid performance by Nice saw them take all three points at the Stade Geoffrey-Guichard against a St Etienne side who despite showing a marked improvement are now rock-bottom of the table.

Olivier Echouafni scored the only goal of the game in the 19th minute and Alain Perrin's St Etienne simply could not make the breakthrough against a team who had only conceded one goal in their previous three games.

Rennes and Bordeaux lie fourth and sixth respectively after battling out a 1-1 draw tonight.

Yoann Gourcuff earned Les Girondins a share of the spoils after Olivier Thomert had given visitors Rennes the lead.

At the wrong end of the table, Ten-man Valenciennes were denied only a third Ligue 1 victory as fellow strugglers Sochaux grabbed a late 2-2 draw which sees both teams remain in the drop zone.

Mevlud Erdinc put the visitors ahead five minutes before the interval but two goals in five second-half minutes from Jose Saez and Johan Audel looked to have put second-bottom VA on course for the points.

However, substitute Sloan Privat struck with two minutes remaining to salvage a draw for the Montbeliard outfit after the hosts had been reduced to 10 men following a second yellow card for Jonathan Lacourt.

Both sides remain in the bottom three on just 10 points from their first 15 matches.

Elsewhere, Caen moved up three places to ninth after beating Auxerre 1-0 at the Stade Michel d'Ornano thanks to Reynald Lemaitre's second-half header, Kevin Gameiro scored the only goal as Lorient edged Toulouse 1-0 and Grenoble and Le Havre battled out a goalless draw at the Stade Des Alpes.

FRENCH LIGUE 1 RESULTS 22/11/2008

Bordeaux 1 (Gourcuff 60)
Rennes 1 (Thomert 20)

Caen 1 (Lemaitre 57)
Auxerre 0

Grenoble 0
Le Havre 0

Lorient 1 (Gameiro 75)
Toulouse 0

PSG 1 (Giuly 25)
Lyon 0

St Etienne 0
Nice 1 (Echouafni 19)

Valenciennes 2 (Saez 64, Audel 69)
Sochaux 2 (Erdinc 40, Privat 88)