PARIS (AFP) - French league strugglers Marseille and Paris Saint Germain kick-started the New Year on a winning note after winning French Cup matches on Saturday.

Marseille beat minnows Beauvais 2-0 to book their ticket into the last 32, while Paris Saint Germain also won 2-0 at Epinal.

It was welcome success for Marseille and PSG, who, although normally among France's most successful clubs, find themselves in the bottom half of the league table.

Ten-time French Cup champions Marseille had little trouble in brushing aside their national division club opponents as first-half goals from Lorik Cana and Djibril Cisse went unanswered.

Cana opened the scoring for Marseille when he acrobatically scissor-kicked home a rebound from a free-kick 24 minutes in.

Cisse, who has failed to find the back of the net in all competitions since late October, doubled the scoreline eight minutes later with a clinical finish off a Mamadou Niang pass.

PSG, who have won the French Cup on seven occasions, thanked first half goals from Clement Chantome and Sylvain Armand for their 2-1 victory over fourth division club Epinal.

"Mission accomplished," said under-fire PSG coach Paul Le Guen.

"It's good because the conditions were a little difficult with a tricky pitch. This could have been a booby-trap for us but we came through it well."

Caen, fourth in the top flight, were knocked out by second division Sedan 3-2.

Alexandre Bonnet, Moussa Sow and Djamel Abdoun were on target for Sedan with Lilian Compan and Yoan Gouffran finding the net for the top flight UEFA Cup hopefuls.

It was Caen's first defeat in two months.

On Friday, first division strugglers Lens, coached by former international striker Jean-Pierre Papin, slumped to a new low when they were dumped out of the Cup by second division Niort.

Lens, third from bottom in the top flight, were undone by a 30th-minute strike from Jean-Francois Riviere in what proved to be the only goal of the game. Riviere's goal was set-up by a right-wing cross from Benoit Leroy.