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Goals by Senegalese forward Moussa Kone and captain Renaud Ripart, on either side of Xeka’s draw for Lille, gave Nimes a victory in the far north of France, knocking them out of the automatic relegation places.
Lille, who have now won just twice in their last six league games and been knocked out of both the Europa League and the Coupe de France in recent weeks, are three points clear at the top of both Lyon and the current one. champion Paris Saint-Germain.
However, Lyon host PSG later and the winners of that game will top the table on goal difference.
Monaco, meanwhile, is four points behind the leader in fourth place after a 4-0 win at Saint-Etienne on Friday.
Lille risk losing the lead in the title race with eight games to go and visiting PSG in their next game in early April after the international break.
Their defeat is the latest surprise result in Ligue 1 following PSG’s 2-1 home loss to Nantes, another relegation-threatened side, last weekend.
“Unbelievable, but that’s football. PSG also lost to Nantes,” Lille captain José Fonte told Canal Plus Sport.
“We did not do well. There is no excuse, but there are eight games left until the end of the season and the battle continues.
“Our number one rule is to defend well, not to concede goals, and then we will have opportunities in all the games, but we did not do it and when you do not defend together as a team it is always difficult.”
Lille was left without French international winger Jonathan Ikone due to injury and saw Sven Botman, their prominent young Dutch center-back, come out in the second half.
Before that, Kone shot high into the net to put Nimes ahead in the 12th minute, only for Portuguese midfielder Xeka to head into Jonathan Bamba’s corner and make it 1-1 in the 20th minute.
However, Ripart beat Lille goalkeeper Mike Maignan to put Nimes in front right at the break and Nimes held on after the break when Burak Yilmaz had a goal disallowed for offside for the hosts.
Nimes move up to relegation tiebreaker position, while Nantes, which had previously drawn 1-1 with Lorient, move down to 19th place.
Among Sunday’s other games, South Korean star Hwang Ui-jo scored his ninth league goal of the season, but couldn’t prevent Bordeaux from losing 3-1 in Montpellier.
as / mw
