Meanwhile, Nice took an important step towards survival with an important home win over relegation rivals Lorient.

And Caen picked up three precious points in their fight against the drop with a slender victory at home to Bordeaux.

Paris Saint-Germain recorded a much needed 2-1 home win against arch-rivals Marseille at the Parc des Princes to join Montpellier at the top of the Ligue 1 table.

Jeremy Menez opened the scoring for Carlo Ancelotti's men who are looking to win their first Ligue 1 title in 18 years after just six minutes, but the visitors levelled soon after half-time thanks to Andre Ayew's effort on 59 minutes.

However, the Parisian crowd were on their feet just two minutes later as former Chelsea defender Alex beat Alou Diarra in the air to head PSG back in front and them on 63 points with seven games left.

The home side, who last won the French league in 1994, finished the game with 10 men when holding midfielder Mohamed Sissoko was sent off for a second bookable offence with three minutes left.

Meanwhile, Didier Deschamps' Marseille continued their poor run with a 10th defeat in their last 11 games in all competitions.

Nice took an important step towards survival with a 2-0 home win over relegation rivals Lorient.

Goals from Anthony Mounier and Renato Civelli shortly after half-time set up a Nice win that moved them two points clear of Lorient, who fell into the drop zone.

Lorient's day was further soured with the dismissal of Alaixys Romao on 78 minutes.

Nice have now lost just once in their past seven league games and the tone was set for back-to-back victories in a first half they dominated without scoring.

Caen picked up three precious points in their fight against the drop as Nicolas Seube's early effort proved sufficient to defeat Bordeaux 1-0 at Stade Michel d'Ornano.

Seube's header after two minutes sealed a first win in seven league matches for Caen, who are now out of the drop zone by one point.

Defeat for Bordeaux means they have now gone four games without a win and are dropping away in the race for a European berth.

The visitors were left to rue a penalty miss by Ludovic Obraniak in the 14th minute that might have changed the tide of the match, but Caen were good value for the win.