Lens snatched second place from Marseille when it defeated its host Rennes 1-0, while Auxerre breathed a sigh of relief by defeating its guest, Troyes, by the same result, Saturday, in the twenty-ninth stage of the French Football Championship .
In the first match, Belgian international striker Luis Obenda imposed himself as the star of the match by scoring the only goal in the 31st minute.
It is the third successive win for Lens and the seventeenth this season, raising its tally to 60 points by goal difference against Marseille, who fell into a draw in front of its guest Montpellier 1-1 on Friday at the opening stage.
As for Rennes, it suffered its ninth loss this season and remained fifth with 50 points, under threat of relegation to sixth place in the event of Lille’s (49 points) victory over its guest, Lorient, on Sunday.
In the second, Auxerre owes its sixth victory this season and the first after two draws and a loss to Senegalese striker Mbaye Niang, who scored the only goal in the 72nd minute.
Auxerre settled the top of the bottom, raising its tally to 26 points, and rose to the sixteenth place temporarily, moving away by five points from Troyes, the eighteenth-placed club, which forces its owner to play a playoff role with the third of the second division.
And Troyes, whose score froze at 21 points, suffered the ninth loss in his last 12 matches in which he did not taste victory, threatening to drop to nineteenth place in the event that Ajaccio, who is equal on points with him, wins at its host Clermont-Ferrand on Sunday.
Troyes' last victory in the league dates back to January 2, when it beat Strasbourg 3-2.
Sunday also plays Nantes with Reims, Angers with Nice, Brest with Toulouse, Monaco with Strasbourg, and Paris Saint-Germain with Lyon.