Paris St Germain halted their away-day blues as goals from Neymar and Angel Di Maria secured them a 2-1 win at Angers.
The French champions, who had lost their last three league games on the road, went ahead through Neymar's 15th top-flight goal of the season and Di Maria made it 2-0 just before the hour mark.
PSG played the closing stages with 10 men following the dismissal of Brazilian defender Marquinhos, who was shown a straight red card with five minutes left for his challenge on Wilfried Kanga.
The resulting penalty was saved by Gianluigi Buffon and, although Flavien Tait followed up his spot-kick to score from the rebound, the visitors held on.
Nice missed a stoppage-time penalty in a 1-1 home draw against Nantes. Victory would have lifted Nice level on points with sixth-placed Marseille but Youcef Atal's spot kick in the fifth minute of added time was saved by Maxime Dupe.
Nice had earlier fallen behind to Samuel Moutoussamy's first-half strike, before Malang Sarr headed a second-half equaliser. Monaco remain in relegation trouble after a 1-0 defeat at Nimes left them outside the bottom three on goal difference with two games to play.
Renaud Ripart headed Nimes into an early lead and Monaco could not find an equaliser despite creating a string of chances. Third-bottom Caen maintained their fine form to climb level on points with Monaco after a 3-2 home win against Reims.
Moussa Doumbia cancelled out Casimir Ninga's opener for Caen, but further first-half goals from Faycal Fajr and Frederic Guilbert gave the home side a 3-1 interval lead. Reims pulled one back through Arber Zeneli's late penalty, but Caen held on for their third win in four matches.
Dijon also kept their survival hopes alive as Kwon Chang-hoon's stoppage-time winner clinched a 2-1 home victory over Strasbourg. Kwon struck in the fourth minute of added time after Julio Tavares' first-half opener for Dijon had been cancelled out by Strasbourg's Ludovic Ajorque.
Dijon are two points behind Caen and Monaco with an inferior goal difference. Amiens remain two points above the bottom three and are looking over their shoulders following a 0-0 home draw against Toulouse.
-PA
