Bordeaux humiliated Monaco 6-0 and embarrassed the watching Prince Albert to move within a point of French league leaders Lyon on Sunday.
Meanwhile, French giants Paris St Germain plunged closer to the relegation trapdoor when they squandered a one-goal lead to lose 2-1 at bitter rivals Marseille.
The defeat left PSG just two places and three points off the drop zone and piled further pressure on coach Paul Le Guen while Marseille moved into fourth place.
All the goals came in the second-half in Monaco as Laurent Blanc's side upped the pressure on Lyon who lost at Le Mans on Saturday just four days before their Champions League clash with Manchester United.
Bordeaux opened the scoring at the Stade Louis II six minutes after the interval when Argentine import Fernando Cavenaghi converted a Johan Micoud pass.
Micoud added a second on the hour mark before Cavenaghi added his second, and his team's third, four minutes later.
Monaco's problems deepened in the 65th minute when Diego Perez was red-carded for a foul on David Bellion leaving the way clear for Micoud, Marouane Chamakh and Gabriel Obertan to compete the rout.
At the Stade Velodrome, PSG took the lead on the half hour mark when Laurent Bonnart brought down Amara Diane which allowed Jerome Rothen to score from the penalty spot.
But Nigerian star Taye Taiwo levelled with a drive from an acute angle in the 35th minute before Mamadou Niang added a crucial second just before half-time.
Mathieu Valbuena created the opportunity for Niang to register his 12th league goal of the season.
"We felt we were on top in the first half hour so it is really annoying to lose like that," Le Guen said. "It's been a long time since Marseille have been tested like that at the Velodrome so it's even more annoying not to be rewarded with points."
With one eye on tomorrow's European showdown with United, Lyon coach Alain Perrin decided to leave Karim Benzema on the bench on Saturday despite already missing injured Brazilian attacker Fred.
It was another Brazilian who stole the headlines as Tulio De Melo scored the only goal of the game in the 70th minute from a cross by Ibrahima Camara.
Le Mans moved into fifth place in the table with 37 points.
Nancy remain third but still eight points behind Lyon, and seven behind Bordeaux, after crashing to a 4-0 defeat at St Etienne.
Lille eased their relegation fears with a 3-1 win over fellow strugglers Rennes with much-travelled Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert scoring twice.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out