Bordeaux and Marseille recover winning feeling

Laurent Blanc's Bordeaux and Eric Gerets' Marseille had French league victories on Saturday to recover that winning feeling after midweek Champions League defeats.

Bordeaux won 2-1 at Lorient to wipe away their midweek Roma defeat in a spirited display similar to their victory at Grenoble last month with just nine players for much of the match.

Marseille beat Caen 2-1 in a tense match to end a run of six matches without a victory.

Gerets said: “I don't think you'll be surprised to hear me say that this victory did us an enormous amount of good. I could have almost seen the headlines in the newspapers tomorrow had we not won the match. I'm delighted, very happy.”

Two long-range shots from Fernando brought Bordeaux a fightback victory in a match where second-choice players such as Benoit Tremoulinas, Gabriel Obertan, Marc Planus and Yoan Gouffran were given a run-out.

Bordeaux's talented playmaker Yoann Gourcuff, however, was unable to impose himself on the match against Lorient coached by father Christian. Lorient's Mickael Ciani had opened the scoring in the 59th minute.

Blanc's team were beaten 3-1 at home by Roma in Wednesday's Champions League action, adding to their initial 4-0 thrashing by Chelsea, to seriously damage their hopes of going through from the group phase.

Marseille, beaten 2-1 at Atletico Madrid in midweek in the same competition, also badly needed a pick-me-up.

Hatem Ben Arfa put Marseille ahead after just two minutes following a mazy run to the edge of the area before unleashing a shot into Vincent Plante's net.

The Normandy club then put in some effort for a good next quarter hour and managed to get the equaliser when captain Anthony Deroin fired in a high ball and Steve Savidan found the net after Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda had let go of the ball.

Mamadou Niang hit the winner in the 59th minute after heading home from a rebound off the crossbar. Marseille finished the match with 10 men however after Karim Ziani was sent off his second yellow card in the 70th minute.

In other matches, Le Mans won 2-1 at Le Havre, Nice and Sochaux drew 1-1, Nantes won 1-0 at Grenoble and Toulouse beat Auxerre by the same scoreline at home.

League leaders Lyon play at Rennes on Sunday, while St Etienne host Monaco and Paris Saint Germain make the trip to Nancy.