Olympique Lyonnais reeled off their seventh consecutive Ligue 1 win on Sunday, a 2-0 defeat of 10-man Metz pushing them four points clear, as Paris Saint-Germain moved level with second-placed Olympique de Marseille.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at AS Saint-Etienne that allowed champions PSG to move level on points with out-of-sorts Marseille, who lost 2-1 at OGC Nice on Friday.
A 31st-minute penalty from Alexandre Lacazette and a late second from Corentin Tolisso proved the undoing of Metz, who dropped to bottom of the table.
Photo: Reuters
The only downside for Lyon came when Lacazette, the league’s top scorer with 21 goals, had to come off with a thigh problem minutes after his spot-kick, awarded for defender Guido Milan’s foul on Rachid Ghezzal.
Milan picked up a harsh red card for his indiscretion.
Coach Hubert Fournier confirmed that Lacazette would miss next weekend’s trip to AS Monaco and was doubtful for the game against PSG the following week.
“We’ll have to wait for a full report from the club’s medical staff before we know how long he will be out,” Fournier said.
However, he expressed satisfaction with the result.
“We feel like we’ve done a job today. We were under a lot of pressure because everyone thought we were going to win, but Metz posed us a lot of problems,” Fournier said.
Ibrahimovic once again proved the undoing of Saint-Etienne, after he also scored the goal that eliminated them from the Coupe de la Ligue on Jan. 13.
This time the win came thanks to a penalty awarded after Jeremy Clement handled in the penalty area, with Ibrahimovic stepping up to convert after 60 minutes for his ninth league goal this season.
It condemned Les Verts to their first defeat since Oct. 5 last year.
Despite the closeness of the result, the Parisians dominated, and with defender Thiago Silva in form confirmed they have regained some of their solidity in defense.
The visitors could have doubled their lead after 70 minutes, but Italian midfielder Marco Verratti’s shot was blocked by Saint-Etienne defender Paul Baysse, while six minutes later a Cavani effort hit the bar.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Evian Thonon Gaillard helped their hopes of avoiding relegation with a 1-0 win over Toulouse which pushed them three points clear of the drop zone.
Stade Malherbe Caen Calvados midfielder Julien Feret helped the Normandy side claim their second straight 4-1 victory, this time against his former club Stade Rennais, with three decisive passes and a goal five minutes from time.
Feret set up Sloan Privat to head in after just four minutes and was hand to tee up Lenny Nangis five minutes after the break, before netting a third himself, with Damien da Silva compounding Rennes’ misery with a minute to go.
Caen moved off the bottom of the table to 18th place as Rennes notched a sixth game without a win to set themselves up for a nervous trip to PSG next weekend.
In Sunday’s other match, Stade de Reims were held goalless by Racing Club de Lens.
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