Olympique Lyonnais beat Gazelec-Ajaccio 2-1 on Saturday to hold on to the coveted Ligue 1 runner-up spot and automatic entry to the Champions League.
The former multiple French champions are in a tight battle with AS Monaco for second, with only goal difference splitting the teams.
Monaco kept the pressure on Lyon with a 3-2 defeat of En Avant de Guingamp to set up a winner-takes-all clash between the sides next weekend.
Lyon took an early lead when Rachid Ghezzal outfoxed the Gazelec defense, scoring directly from a corner.
As the interval approached, Maxwell Cornet scored into an open goal after smart work from Alexandre Lacazette and Rafael.
Four minutes after the break the visitors pulled one back with Gregory Pujol conjuring up a superb lob after a counterattack.
At Monaco, Andrea Raggi put the Principality club into a 17th-minute lead against Guingamp, knocking in the rebound after his header hit the crossbar.
As the first half drew to a close, Nabil Dirar doubled their lead.
Deep into the second half, Mevlut Erding’s goal gave Guingamp hope, but seconds after the restart fine individual work from Bernardo Silva restored Monaco’s two-goal cushion.
The home side then had to endure a nervy final 10 minutes after Benjamin Angoua scored Guingamp’s second.
“It was a deserved victory, now we are going to play ‘the final’ [at Lyon],” Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim said. “Monaco will be playing for second place in this game. We will start preparing for this game from Monday, because tomorrow [yesterday] is a holiday for everyone.”
Earlier, Nantes delivered a damaging blow to OGC Nice’s Champions League hopes as they inflicted a 1-0 defeat on Claude Puel’s side.
Adrien Thomasson fired home the only goal after 68 minutes at the Stade de la Beaujoire as Nice were punished for failing to properly clear a cross.
Nice had ridden their luck until that point, with Nantes hitting the woodwork on three occasions — once through Emiliano Sala’s first-half header before US international Alejandro Bedoya struck the post and then the bar in the space of five minutes.
Nice slipped to fifth, one point behind AS Saint-Etienne who drew 0-0 with Toulouse as Nantes snapped a run of five games without a win.
For Toulouse this was a precious point in their battle to avoid relegation.
And they had their goalkeeper Stiphane Ruffier to thank after he saved a penalty and produced a series of other saves.
Toulouse have 34 points, two adrift of Stade de Reims, who lost 3-2 to Montpellier Herault.
On Friday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Stade Rennais 4-0 to equal their own Ligue 1 points record.
Ibrahimovic increased his goals haul to 34 for the season with Maxwell and Edinson Cavani netting either side of the Swede’s brace as PSG moved onto 89 points, matching their total from 2013-2014, with three games still to play.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but