Olympique Lyonnais brought high-flying Montpellier Herault down to earth on Saturday with a 2-1 win at their Gerland Stadium, but their victory was marred by captain Lisandro Lopez being stretchered off with an ankle injury.
Goals from Bosnian forward Miralem Pjanic and Jeremy Pied ensured that Lyon move to within a point of Ligue 1 leaders Montpellier, who had been unbeaten in their opening three league games. Henri Bedimo finally got one back a minute into extra-time.
Lyon showed little sign of fatigue after their midweek Champions League activities, when they qualified for the group phase of the elite competition at the expense of Russian side Rubin Kazan.
The only low point of the night was the injury to Argentine striker and Lyon captain Lisandro, who was stretched off in tears at the end of the match with an apparently serious left ankle injury.
“Licha’s injury casts a shadow over this beautiful victory,” Lyon coach Remi Garde said. “We don’t know yet how long he will be out for or what kind of injury it is. He’s gone for tests and we’re waiting ... if he were to be absent for a long time it could cause us problems.”
Earlier, AJ Auxerre dominated newboys AC Ajaccio 4-1 as Girondins de Bordeaux got a come-from-behind 2-1 win at Valenciennes, to give both sides their first wins of the season.
Laurent Fournier’s Auxerre leap from 16th to eighth as Bordeaux’s new coach Francis Gillot could finally breathe a sigh of relief as his side move up to ninth.
Auxerre’s domination paid off as Kamel Chafni found the net 10 minutes before the break with Alain Traore getting a second on 74 minutes.
The Burkina Faso midfielder claimed his second minutes later to go top of the Ligue 1 scorers with five goals.
Ajaccio got one back three minutes later from Araujo Ilan before Anthony Le Tallec headed in Auxerre’s fourth on 90 minutes.
Mathieu Dossevi put Valenciennes ahead after 26 minutes, but the hosts then missed three chances to close the game down.
Bordeaux came through thanks to two substitutes — Abdou Traore and Anthony Modeste — whose goals brought the game to life in the dying minutes.
Elsewhere Lorient beat AS Nancy-Lorraine 2-1, with Dijon FCO beating Evian Thonan Gaillard 1-0 and OGC Nice and Stade Brestois 29 playing out a goalless draw.
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