PARIS, Oct 27 (SW) – Racing Club de Lens were bowed out of the French League Cup campaign after conceding two late strikes against Jacques Santini’s Auxerre last night.

The northern hosts looked like advancing to the next round of the French League Cup until the 80th minute, Aruna Dindane (20’ from the spot) and Olivier Thomert (56’) having put the Felix Bollaert outfit in a comfortable lead, despite Luigi Pieroni’s 33rd-minute goal.

But a late equalizer from Mathieu Berson in the 80th minute, and a third goal from Benjani in the dying minutes of the game left Racing Club de Lens stunned, the northern side suffering from an unexpected cup campaign ending.

Earlier in the day, an own goal from Abdoulaye Meite (85’) handed Marseille a late 1-0 defeat against a dominating Bordeaux side at the Chaban-Delmas stadium, while Monaco did just enough to see minnows Dijon out, Gerard scoring the only goal of the game on the hour mark.

PSG looked comfortable winners against Troyes (4-1), with Portugal international Pauleta scoring a double on the night. Finally, Lille showed all their realism against Saint-Etienne at the Geoffroy Guichard stadium. Two set pieces effort from Dante (15’) and Franquart (18’) in the first half fired the visitors into the lead, and les Verts, which looked nothing like the combative side that defeated l’OM in the league last Sunday, never found the way to reduce the score.

Full results of Wednesday’s French League Cup fixtures :

Bordeaux 1 : 0 Marseille
Le Mans 2 : 1 Clermont
Laval 0 : 1 Guingamp
Le Havre 0 : 1 Toulouse
Monaco 1 : 0 Dijon
Nice 2 : 0 Chateauroux
Ajaccio 4 : 2 Grenoble
Caen 1 : 0 Strasbourg
Lens 2 : 3 Auxerre
Montpellier 1 : 0 Rennes
Nancy 1 : 0 Sochaux
Paris Saint Germain 4 : 1 Troyes
Sedan 1 : 0 Metz
Saint-Etienne 0 : 2 Lille