Bordeaux victory keeps their sights on Europe

Goals from Marouane Chamakh and Carlos Henrique in Bordeaux’s 2-1 win against Nice on Saturday enabled Laurent Blanc’s men to keep their sights on European action next season.

They jumped from fifth to third, relegating Toulouse, who lost 3-2 at Monaco, down a place to fifth. Leaders Lyon host Auxerre and second-placed Paris Saint Germain meet arch rivals and fourth-placed Marseille at the Parc des Princes on Sunday.

Bordeaux went ahead in the 19th minute when, following a corner, the ball went out to Yoann Gourcuff whose powerful initial shot set up Chamakh to score.

The joy at the Chaban-Delmas stadium was short-lived however as Bordeaux keeper Ulrich Rame committed a foul in the box and the subsequent penalty was scored by Habib Bamogo just five minutes later.

Three minutes after the break, Bordeaux got the winner thanks to a near-post header by Henrique following a Wendel cross.

Toulouse coach Alain Casanova was in despondant mood after their defeat to Monaco.

“It was a pity to lose this match. We were never really in danger in open play and then conceded three goals from freekicks,” Casanova said.

“We are defending very badly in these situations. This defeat means we will have to re-evaluate things and get back to work. We should have calmly defended our lead in the second half and been more disciplined when we lost the ball. That didn’t happen.”

Andre-Pierre Gignac scored for Toulouse and Frederic Nimani equalised for Monaco to leave the match 1-1 at the break. Mauro Cetto put Toulouse ahead but goals from Francois Modesto and then Igor Lolo in the second minute of injury time earned Monaco the win.