French serial champions Lyon left their shooting boots at home Saturday, a goalless draw at Auxerre handing title rivals Marseille the chance to reach the summit if they can see off Paris Saint Germain on Sunday.
Lyon, who have won the last seven league championships, were frustrated as they edged on to 21 points from ten games at the Abbe-Deschamps stadium to leave Marseille in with a chance of overtaking them by a single point.
Bordeaux could have sneaked provisionally into second spot overnight with a win at Nice but were held instead 2-2 after throwing away a two-goal lead, Nice levelling affairs with a penalty six minutes into stoppage time by Loic Remy.
Brazilian Wendel had given Bordeaux an 11th-minute lead and Argentine Fernando Cavenaghi made it two nine minutes after the restart.
It looked all over but Eric Mouloungui pulled one back as Nice, hovering on the fringes of the top six, belatedly began to show some muscle in attack before Remy clinched a point.
Bordeaux are fourth, three points off the pace like third-placed Le Mans, who also drew 2-2 away, in their case at Rennes.
Toulouse were facing Monaco, currently sixth from bottom, in the late game hoping for a win to take them a point clear of Marseille.
Lille are sixth on 16 points after a brace from Ludo Obraniak secured a 2-2 home draw with Caen, who remain in midtable.
Down at the bottom, Le Havre thanked two goals from Jean-Michel Lesage as they recovered from going a goal down inside a minute against fellow strugglers Valenciennes while Lorient dragged former giants Nantes back down towards the mire with a 3-0 win in their Breton derby.
On Sunday, as well as Marseille and PSG, St Etienne and Grenoble face off in a midtable encounter and Nancy host Sochaux in a lowly battle.
