Ligue 1 wrap: Bad day for leading clubs

Ligue 1 leaders Montpellier scraped a 1-1 draw at lowly Dijon without top scorer Olivier Giroud on Saturday.

The leading marksman in France, with 16 goals this campaign, was sidelined through suspension along with key playmaker Younes Belhanda (injured) and it took the Ligue 1 pace-setters until the 87th minute to equalise through Jonathan Tinhan.

On-loan Chelsea winger Gael Kakuta poked a rebound into an empty net in the 67th minute after Eric Bautheac’s shot had fired off the woodwork for Dijon’s lead.

Montpellier are two points clear of Paris Saint-Germain on 54 points, but gifted their Paris rivals a glorious chance to go top when they play Ajaccio on Sunday.

Eden Hazard scored a brace for champions Lille but it was not enough to secure the three points as they were held to a 2-2 draw at home to second-from-bottom Auxerre.

The Belgian star scored from the spot after opening the scoring in the 34th minute before Lille saw their lead wiped out by second-half strikes from Ben Sahar and Cedric Hengbart for Auxerre.

Both sides had a player sent off with Lille’s Mauro Cetto seeing red in the 41st minute and Auxerre’s Anthony Le Tallec sent from the field in the 68th minute.

Both Lyon, sixth, and eighth-placed Marseille slumped to defeats.

With an eye on their Champions League second leg with APOEL next week, Lyon fell 2-0 to Nancy, who climbed out of the relegation zone.

Sebastien Puygrenier and Djamel Bakar struck in the second half for the home side.

Marseille suffered a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Toulouse who scored through Aymen Abdennour midway through the second half.

In the absence of injured pair Loic Remy and Mathieu Valbuena, Marseille looked devoid of ideas in attack as they slumped to a second consecutive 1-0 loss.

Fourth-placed St Etienne are now 11 points behind Montpellier following a disappointing 2-0 defeat at home to Evian.

Lastly, a penalty from Luciano Monzon and an Abraham Gnuie Gneki strike handed Nice a timely 2-1 win at Bordeaux.