PSG teed themselves up for Thursday's return leg visit by the Greeks with an important domestic victory which will have boosted their hopes of pulling clear of the relegation zone.

Paul Le Guen's men climbed one place to sixth from the foot, two points above the drop zone, with the win kicked off by captain Pedro Pauleta's 71st minute penalty awarded after Frederic Biancalani's dubious handball.

Nancy keeper Damien Fregorini saved Pauleta's first strike but Pierre-Alain Frau picked-up the rebound and passed to Pauleta who made no mistake at the second attempt.

This was compensation for the Portuguese international who had a goal disallowed on the quarter of an hour mark for off-side but it so incensed Nancy manager Pablo Correa he was expelled from the dug out.

Frau added a second with five minutes on the clock before Marcelo Gallardo, who had set up that goal, rounding off an excellent night's work for the capital side with a third with one minute on the clock.

Nancy were reduced to 10 men after Brazilian striker Kim was given his marching orders in the 77th minute for a second yellow card.

Tempers flared between the benches in Nice's 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Valenciennes.

The latter's coach, Antonie Kombouare, was sent packing to the stands after a fierce verbal altercation with his opposite number, Frederic Antonetti after Valenciennes' Steve Savidan was booked for diving.

Up at the top of the table Sochaux moved up to fourth, level on 39 points with Lille, after a 2-0 win over Le Mans.

The headline match of the weekend was on Friday when Brazilian international striker Fred inspired champions Lyon to a come from behind 2-1 victory at Lille to give them a much needed boost ahead of their Champions League clash with Roma next Wednesday.

For Lille - who were watched by Sir Alex Ferguson manager of their Champions League opponents Manchester United - it was a bitter disappointment leaving them trailing Lyon by 18 points.

Lyon manager Gerard Houllier commiserated with Lille over their late late disappointment.

"It is always dreadful to lose to a late goal and that happened to us recently," admitted the former France and Liverpool handler.

"However, for us, it is a vital win as we did not have a great January but now we have won two in a row and tonight was a gutsy win."

"The game against Manchester United will be different but again we must not commit the same errors and lose focus like we did tonight," said Lille coach Claude Puel.

On Sunday, Nantes have a tough trip to Marseille' Velodrome stadium with co-managers Japhet N'Doram and Michel Der Zakarian at the helm for their first fixture following the sacking of Georges Eo.

Second-placed Lens will be aiming to cut their deficit over the leaders to 11 points with a win at Monaco.