Bordeaux are still a threat to Lyon
PARIS, France — Lyon’s bid for a seventh successive French league title is still under threat after they were held 0-0 at Nice.
The rattled the woodwork twice in the opening half but could not make the breakthrough and moved five points clear of Bordeaux, who travel to Marseille on Sunday.
Nice were first to go close when Bakary Kone’s curling right-footed effort was that Lyon goalkeeper Gregory Coupet expertly tipped on to the bar.
Free-kick specialist Juninho hit the Nice crossbar before Toulalan fired in a 30-yard volley that left Nice keeper Hugo Lloris well beaten but crashed off the woodwork to safety.
Lloris was injured in a clash with Kim Kallstrom in the 37th minute and was replaced by veteran Lionel Letizi at the interval.
Letizi did well to keep out efforts from Juninho and Benzema in the second half.
Lyon’s top scorer Karim Benzema said: It’s a good point to gain, Nice is a very good team.
We really wanted to win, but the essential thing is that we didn’t lose.
A victory for Bordeaux against Marseille would close the gap on Lyon to just two points ahead of next week’s penultimate round of games when Bordeaux host Sochaux and Lyon host Nancy.
On the final match day of the season, both Lyon and Bordeaux are away from home - at Auxerre and Lens respectively.
Paris St Germain saw two important points slip away in the 89th minute of their relegation battle at Toulouse.
The club from the capital led through Bernard Mendy’s 67th minute effort but with time running out Mohamed Fofana equalized.
Toulouse threatened a winner in the second minute of injury time, but Landreau did well to collect Paolo Cesar’s strike from the edge of the area.
Landreau said the next two matches would show PSG whether they had the mental strength to avoid relegation.
We were unlucky to concede what I thought was a fortunate goal by Toulouse at the end, he said.
Now it’s clear. This is going to go all the way to the final two matches. It will be tough, but the teams who are the strongest mentally are the ones who will beat relegation.
Toulose and PSG both have 39 points, putting them one clear of the relegation zone. Lens could climb above both teams if they win at home to Monaco later on Saturday and a draw would put them ahead of PSG on goal difference E-mail to a friend
