Paris: Lille and Monaco kept pace with leaders Paris Saint-Germain, both winning 1-0 in Sunday’s Ligue 1 action in France.
Pape N’Diaye Souare scored six minutes from time to keep Lille second in the table four points behind PSG with a win over 10-man Toulouse. Champions PSG had won 3-0 at Reims on Saturday.
In Sunday’s late kick-off, substitute Mounir Obbadi’s 70th-minute strike kept Claudio Ranieri’s Monaco in the chase as they came away with all three points from fellow newly-promoted side Nantes.
Monaco’s first win in four games puts them third in the table five points off the pace.
Rene Girard’s Lille extended their run to nine games without conceding a goal as Nigerian international goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama has kept his slate clean for 855 minutes of action.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to compete with PSG. For the moment Paris are four points ahead, you can’t say that they’ve pulled ahead,” said Girard.
It was a largely unconvincing display from the northerners who struggled to create anything despite playing the final 34 minutes with a numerical advantage following Oscar Trejo’s red card.
“The sending off totally changed the direction of the match,” complained Toulouse coach Alain Casanova.
“When I see my player with three stitches it makes me think there surely must have been a foul beforehand.
“He was given his marching orders and I regret it because we were really causing them problems on the technical front. We found ourselves with ten with half an hour to go and they didn’t have many chances.”
Enyeama was required to save his side on three occasions from Ben Yedder, Issiaga Sylla and Adrien Regattin.
But Souare found space at the back post from Florent Balmont’s cross from the right to head home and snatch the three points.
The Nigerian international goalkeeper admitted his side had luck on their side.
“I made great saves, are you sure?!” he said. “We were lucky because they had a player sent off while they had been playing very well up until that.”
Meanwhile, Saint-Etienne got back to winning ways at Nice despite the absence of their fans.
Around 250 visiting fans were evacuated from Nice’s Allianz Riviera stadium after coming under fire from sections of the home support, who tore up seats and threw them at their rival supporters.
The visitors however let their football do the talking with Mevlut Erding scoring his first goal for Saint-Etienne after 23 minutes, lifting his side to sixth.
It was a fourth straight defeat for Nice, who were hit by a string of injuries, with an error from third goalkeeper Luca Veronese, 22, accounting for the goal.
