Lille had earned a laborious 1-0 victory at Rennes through a Matt Moussilou goal to give them 19 points with Lyon, two points ahead of Monaco, who lost 4-3 at home to Nice on Saturday.

St Etienne coach Elie Baup fielded a defence of Herita Ilunga, Vincent Hognon, Zoumana Camara and Patrice Carteron in front of keeper Jeremie Janot, plus a five-man midfield behind sole striker Frederic Piquionne.

Baup's opposite number at Lyon Paul Le Guen had a similar 4-5-1 system with Govou and Florent Malouda on the flanks trying to set up sole striker Sylvain Wiltord.

Juninho Pernambucano gave a hint of things to come when, from a freekick, he forced a superb, finger-tip save from Janot in the 18th minute.

Carteron made a needless foul on the edge of the box, a very unadvisable thing to do with a player like Juninho around, leaving the Brazilian with another attempt after 34 minutes.

This time Juninho was spot on. He curled a right-footed shot over the wall and into the left hand side of goal, leaving Janot completely wrongfooted.

Three minutes after the break, St Etienne were back on level terms.

Lyon keeper Gregory Coupet punched away a corner and the ball eventually found Ilunga who hit a powerful shot between Lyon defenders and Nicolas Marin deflected the ball into the goal.

Just after Lyon's Malouda and Mahamadou Diarra both had attempts in a matter of seconds, St Etienne scored their second goal.

From a David Hellebuyck freekick, Pascal Feindouno connected with a superb header which beat Coupet.

Then came Juninho's equalising penalty scored on the second attempt in the 88th minute. Janot, diving to his right, saved brilliantly but Juninho was alert to slot home the rebound before Janot jumped two-footed against his own post in comical fashion in exasperation.

Govou then hit his powerful, injury time winner for Lyon.