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Goals from defender Landry N’Guemo and substitute Bakaye Traore earned Nancy a 2-0 win over Caen and a useful three points in the congested Ligue 1 relegation battle.

The hosts went into the game just three points above the drop zone and three points behind their opponents. But N’Guemo gave them a half-time advantage and, after Caen’s Sambou Yatabare was sent off, Traore’s clincher lifted them six points clear of the bottom three after a dominant display.

Lyon continue to put pressure on the Ligue 1 leaders thanks to a 2-0 victory at mid-table Sochaux.

Lisandro Lopez and Miralem Pjanic scored the goals which extended Les Gones’ unbeaten run to seven matches in all competitions. The win moved Lyon a point behind joint leaders Lille and Rennes, although the former play their game in hand against Valenciennes.

Eric Mouloungui scored the winner to earn Nice a 1-0 victory over fellow strugglers Auxerre and move them seven points clear of the Ligue 1 drop zone.

Mouloungui volleyed home Anthony Mounier’s cross just after the hour mark to leave the visitors, Champions League participants earlier this season, three points above the bottom three.

Auxerre had hoped last weekend’s win over title hopefuls Paris St Germain would prove a turning point in their disappointing season, but instead it looks to have been another false dawn.

A controversial penalty set St Etienne on their way to a 2-0 victory at home to Brest.

Bakary Sako converted the 35th-minute spot-kick, but Brest had reason to feel very hard done by as replays suggested Alejandro Alonso dived to win it. Their anger boiled over, with coach Alex Dupont getting sent to the stands before Dimitri Payet sealed the win late on.

A late goal from Remy Cabella rescued a well-deserved point for basement side Arles in an entertaining 3-3 clash with Lorient.

Having trailed to Camel Meriem’s opener, the visitors hit back with strikes from Morgan Amalfitano, Sigamary Diarra and Kevin Gameiro to take what appeared to be a healthy lead. But Arles belied their league position as Yann Kermorgant reduced the deficit before Cabella equalised 10 minutes from time.

Federico Santander scored the only goal of the game as Toulouse ended their four-game losing run at relegation-threatened Lens.

Santander struck with 15 minutes remaining when he headed home a Fode Mansare cross. It meant Toulouse secured an overdue victory and while they look safe from relegation with a 10-point buffer above the bottom three, Lens’ predicament is more concerning.

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Zaragoza crush Valencia

Real Zaragoza turned up the heat on Valencia coach Unai Emery with a thumping 4-0 win.

Valencia president Manuel Llorente backed his boss after the team tumbled out of the Champions League at the hands of Schalke in midweek, but got far from the perfect response at La Romareda.

Goals from Jiri Jarosik and Ander Herrera in the first half and a brace of penalties after the break from Gabi completed a miserable night for Valencia.

And they finished the game with 10 men as Marius Stankevicius was sent off in the 65th minute for a second yellow card he received in conceding the first penalty.

Valencia got off to a nightmare start as they conceded after just four minutes, Jarosik heading Javier Paredes’ free-kick from the right into the roof of the net.

At the other end Zaragoza goalkeeper Toni Doblas fumbled a cross from Jeremy Mathieu but got away with it.

Ikechukwu Uche had a chance to double the hosts’ lead in the 39th minute but his shot from six yards was weak and went wide.

But the Nigerian made up for that miss just a minute later by crossing for Herrera to knock home the second.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors in the 65th minute as Stankevicius brought down Nicolas Bertolo in the area.

The Lithuanian collected his second booking and Gabi stroked home the penalty.

Zaragoza were rampant now and Braulio’s shot was tipped round the post by goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.

But he was picking the ball out of his net for a fourth time in the 74th minute, Gabi coolly sending another penalty into the bottom corner after David Albelda had fouled Braulio to put the seal on a comprehensive win.

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Karim Benzema continued his fine recent form with a brace to help Real Madrid down lowly Hercules 2-0 and cut Barcelona’s lead at the Primera Division summit to four points.

Benzema took his tally to eight goals in his last six matches after netting in the 24th and 56th minutes, leading Madrid to their 24th successive home win in all competitions.

For Hercules, the defeat leaves them stuck in the bottom three with just six points and three goals from 15 away games this season.

Atletico Madrid lost more ground in the race for Europe as they were held to a 2-2 draw by lowly Almeria.

Atletico took the lead as Tiago pounced on a Crusat error and chipped a clever ball forward to Sergio Aguero, who got past Diego Alves and slotted the ball into the empty net. Almeria deservedly levelled three minutes into the second half when Crusat volleyed Luis Perea’s poor clearance into the corner from 16 yards.

Aguero then advanced into the area and slotted a low left-footed drive into the bottom corner to make it 2-1 on the hour, but Atletico were once again unable to hold on to their advantage as Goitom headed home from seven yards with 13 minutes remaining.

Valencia were thrashed 4-0 by Real Zaragoza to round off a disappointing week for Unai Emery’s men.

Just three days after being dumped out of the Champions League by Schalke, Valencia were comprehensively outplayed at La Romareda and fell to goals from Jiri Jarosik and Ander Herrera, plus two penalties from Gabi.

Marius Stankevicius was also sent off for the visitors to cap a miserable evening.

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Borussia Dortmund suffered just their third defeat of the season, 1-0 at Hoffenheim, to miss out on the chance to set a new Bundesliga record.

Vedad Ibisevic scored the only goal of the game for the home side in the 63rd minute.

Dortmund had won six and drawn two of their last eight games but failed to collect their 12th away victory of the season to set a new league record. They remain well clear at the top of the table with 61 points, 12 ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, who play on Sunday.

Bayern Munich ended a three-game losing streak in emphatic style, 6-0 against Hamburg, in their first match since coach Louis van Gaal’s end-of-season departure was announced.

Arjen Robben was Bayern’s hero with a hat-trick before being removed early in view of Tuesday’s Champions League tie with Inter Milan. Franck Ribery added the fourth before Thomas Muller grabbed a fifth for a dominant Bayern.

Heiko Westermann’s late own goal compounded Hamburg’s woes and moved Bayern back up to fourth, just two points adrift of third-placed Hannover and their minimum aim of a place in the Champions League next season.

Schalke earned a crucial three points with a 2-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt which further eased their fears of being involved in a relegation scrap in the closing weeks of the season.

Jose Manuel Jurado opened the scoring for Schalke in first-half stoppage time before Georgios Tzavellas levelled the game after 70 minutes. However, Angelos Charisteas gave Schalke the victory with his goal in the 84th minute.

Substitute Per Nilsson scored two minutes into stoppage time to continue Nurnberg‘s superb run of results with a 2-1 away victory over struggling Wolfsburg.

Nilsson’s goal followed Philipp Wollscheid’s effort in the 45th minute which equalised Mario Mandzukic’s opener for Wolfsburg after 22 minutes.

Erwin Hoffer’s last-gasp goal earned Kaiserslautern their first league victory of 2011 as they came from behind to see off Freiburg 2-1.

Adam Nemec’s own goal put the visitors in front in the 21st minute, but the striker scored at the right end to level 12 minutes later. And Hoffer completed the comeback by grabbing the winner two minutes into time added on.

In the late game, Dante scored deep into stoppage time as Borussia Monchengladbach secured a 1-1 draw and a crucial point in their fight against relegation at Werder Bremen.

Sandro Wagner scored Werder’s opener after 39 minutes, but the hosts failed to add a second to allow Dante to steal a point.

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Trotters march through to Wembley semi

Substitute Lee Chung-yong earned Bolton their first FA Cup semi-final spot for 11 years with a late winner to settle an enthralling tie against Birmingham 3-2 at St Andrew’s.

Johan Elmander and Kevin Davies twice put Bolton in front only for Cameron Jerome and Kevin Phillips to reply for the Carling Cup holders.

But Lee made no mistake with his close-range header a minute from time to end Birmingham’s hopes of a cup double.

Birmingham were lacking seven regular first teamers through injury and also lost Barry Ferguson and Martin Jiranek during the first half.

But the never-say-die spirit which has been their trademark under Alex McLeish surfaced again – only for Lee to break their resistance.

Former Birmingham midfielder Fabrice Muamba had the first attempt on goal but his low drive did not trouble Ben Foster.

Blues started to get a foothold in the game and Jussi Jaaskelainen had to grab hold of a Davies header from Larsson’s inswinging free-kick.

Martin Petrov found himself in yards of space on the left of the Birmingham box but his shot was blocked by Stuart Parnaby.

Jerome’s pace took him behind the Bolton defence when running onto Larsson’s pass but his first touch was woeful.

Gretar Steinsson became the first player to be booked after 20 minutes for bringing down Phillips.

A minute later Elmander put Bolton in front.

Muamba won the ball in the air and Klasnic’s flick-on let in Elmander who was unchallenged by Davies and Jiranek before he drilled a low left-footed shot past Foster.

It was his 11th goal of the campaign.

Birmingham suffered a double setback with Ferguson and Jiranek both limping out of the action to be replaced by Liam Ridgewell and Nathan Redmond.

Jean Beausejour, on target in the last two games, had a shot deflected for a corner after good play by David Murphy.

Jaaskelainen came racing out of his area to clear from Jerome. But after 38 minutes the striker brought Birmingham back on level terms.

The former Cardiff player won the ball in the air and David Wheater’s clearance dropped back into his path.

Jerome needed no second invitation to hammer a low shot past Jaaskelainen and into the corner of the net.

Birmingham started the second period in confident mood and appealed in vain for a penalty when Jaaskelainen came to the edge of his box and challenged Jerome after a fine pass from Redmond.

But referee Phil Dowd, who was up with play, opted to award a corner much to the anger of the home fans.

Bolton substitute Lee came to Bolton’s rescue when he cleared off the line from Murphy following a corner by Larsson.

Kevin Davies had the ball in the net after 64 minutes but was clearly offside.

A minute later, the Bolton striker restored his side’s lead.

He was brought down in the box by Curtis Davies and got up to send Foster the wrong way from the spot.

Phillips came close to equalising when his shot from a narrow angle crashed against the post with Jaaskelainen beaten.

The game was now wide open and Foster produced a fine save to deny Elmander after he broke clear of the home defence.

Then with 10 minutes left a superb strike by Phillips brought Birmingham level.

Redmond won the ball in the air and Phillips turned on the edge of the box and volleyed over Jaaskelainen.

Davies was yellow carded for a challenge on Ridgewell.

With a minute left Lee sent the 4,300 Bolton fans wild with delight as his header beat Foster to settle the tie.

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