Steve Marlet and Stephane Guivarc'H had put Auxerre 2-0 ahead by the sixth minute and then Finnish international Teemu Tainio added a last-minute goal to complete the scoring.

Lyon, who beat Marseille 1-0 through a Sonny Anderson goal on Friday, are in second spot and Monaco, 3-0 winners over Strasbourg on Saturday, are third.

Marlet connected from a Bernard Diomede cross to put the ball past Bastia 'keeper Eric Durand in the fourth minute. Two minutes later, Kuami Agboh slid the ball to Diomedeon the edge of the box. Diomede once more crossed and Guivarc'H knocked the ball home to double the score.

Bastia took more of the initiative in the second half and deservedly managed to score an equalizer through Ousmane Soumah with 13 minutes left. However, instead of Bastia getting an equalizer, Auxerre went furtherahead with a move involving yet another cross by Diomede. Finnish international Tainio, with just 'keeper Durand to beat, lobbed him for an emphatic result but not an emphatic performance by Guy Roux's side.

Marseille, conquerors of Paris St Germain on Tuesday, could have been excused for having only half a mind on Friday's game in light of their crucial champions league clash with Manchester United on Tuesday.

Lyon's win, thanks to their in-form Brazilian striker and former Marseille hitman Anderson, gave them a timely boost before their own champions league tie with Celtic at home on Thursday.

Anderson, who scored both goals in his side's defeat of Nantes mid-week, once again proved his worth to Lyon.

Pouncing on a defensive blunder by Marseille's William Gallas, Anderson slotted the ball past 'keeper Stephane Porato for a 37 minute strike.

This came after Ravanelli had gone close with a curling left-footer drawing on all of the visiting 'keeper's acrobatics to keep it out of his net.

Monaco,without Argentine playmaker Marcelo Gallardo who has a groin injury, earned their sixth success of the season thanks to a fine performance by their Italian Marco Simone who scored twice.

Simone also scored twice against Bordeaux on Wednesday and now has eight goals, one behind teammate David Trezeguet who has nine.

Chelsea suffer blues

LONDON: Premiership title contenders Chelsea were left licking their wounds today after suffering the worst possible preparation for next week's crunch champions league soccer clash with Galatasaray in Turkey.

Gianluca Vialli's side lost 1-0 at Liverpool last night, had Marcel Desailly and Dennis Wise sent off and saw defender Frank Leboeuf limp off with a serious looking ankle injury.

David Thompson fired Liverpool's winner two minutes into the second-half and Chelsea were left with a mountain to climb after Desailly was dismissed for a second bookable offence when he brought down Danny Murphy to concede a penalty missed by Michael Owen.

Wise was sent offfor the ninth time in his Chelsea career for violent conduct when he slapped Liverpool's Czech striker Vladimir Smicer.

Chelsea slipped to sixth as a result, six points behind leaders Leeds who equalled a club record of nine wins in a row by beating bottom side Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 at Elland Road.

Andy Cole struck twice as Manchester United kept up the pressure a point behind Leeds in second place with a 4-1 win over Watford at Old Trafford.

Lazio win

MILAN: Showing no effects from the jet-lag of trans-Atlantic flight, Argentine star Juan Sebastian Veron produced an outstanding performance and scored the opening goal in Lazio's 3-0 victory at Udinese last night which lifted the Roman soccer team atop the Serie A standings.

Another transatlantic traveller, Fiorentina's captain-striker Gabriel Batistuta, was not equally impressive in his team 0-2 home loss to Parma, in the only other match of the day.