PSG finally cure travel sickness, beat Lens

Paris Saint Germain clinched their first away league victory since December 2009 on Sunday when they defeated Lens 2-0, a victory which elevated them into fifth place in the French first division.

An own-goal by Yohan Demont in the 50th-minute and a stoppage time strike from Brazilian summer signing Nene, his fourth of the campaign, put an end to PSG’s 14-match run without a win on the road.

Toulouse blew their chance to nip ahead of Saint Etienne on goal difference at the top when they could only draw 1-1 at home with Lille.

Gervinho opened the scoring for Lille before Antoine Devaux equalised for Toulouse 15 minutes from time.

On Saturday, Dimitri Payet scored the winning goal and cleared two shots off the line as Saint-Etienne earned a 1-0 win at local rivals Lyon to pile the pressure on OL coach Claude Puel.

Payet curled home an inch-perfect free-kick in the 75th minute after Saint-Etienne had weathered sustained pressure from their hosts, who were denied by the frame of the goal on three occasions.

“We expected them to play a great game and we weren’t wrong,” said Payet, whose team had not beaten Lyon since April 1994.

“We had a bit of luck and we managed to capitalise on it.”

Victory in a full-blooded 100th Derby du Rhone kept Les Verts on top of Ligue 1 and prolonged Lyon’s dreadful start to the season.

The seven-time French champions, who finished second last season, drop to second-bottom in the table with just one win from seven matches and Puel is now likely to face intense speculation about his future.

Rennes are a point behind Saint-Etienne after winning 2-1 at Nice, while champions Marseille beat Sochaux 2-1 to record back-to-back wins for the first time in the league this season and climb to sixth.

They took the lead in fortuitous circumstances in the 19th minute when left-back Taye Taiwo’s over-hit cross from the left sailed over Sochaux goalkeeper Matthieu Dreyer and inside the right-hand post.

Lucho Gonzalez doubled their advantage by volleying in a flick-on from home debutant Loic Remy, before substitute Nicolas Maurice-Belay reduced the arrears with 14 minutes to play.

“The most important thing is the result, even if we could have avoided some of the difficulties we had at the end of the match,” said Marseille coach Didier Deschamps.

“We managed to create lots of chances, but we lacked the prolificacy to kill the match.”

In Saturday’s other matches, Bordeaux drew 0-0 at Caen, Montpellier beat rock-bottom Arles-Avignon 3-1 and Lorient earned a 2-1 win at home to Monaco thanks to an 89th-minute winner by Lynel Kitambala.

Kenyan Dennis Oliech scored the season’s fastest goal when he put Auxerre ahead after 57 seconds of their 2-2 draw with Nancy.