Olympique Lyonnais jumped up to second place in Ligue 1 after they edged past bottom side ESTAC Troyes 1-0 on Saturday, eventually taking advantage of playing almost an hour with a man advantage.
Claudio Beauvue converted a 78th-minute penalty as Hubert Fournier’s side, who face a critical Champions League group stage clash at home to Zenit St Petersburg on Wednesday, finally capitalized on Corentin Jean’s first-half dismissal.
“The main thing is the victory, but we can’t be fully satisfied with our performance,” Fournier said afterwards.
“Our play lacked speed, intensity and impact against a very well organized defense. We’ve been heavily criticized, but we’re second in the league and we still have a lot of improvements to make,” he said.
Lyon have taken 10 points from their past four matches, but last season’s runners-up are still 10 points behind runaway leaders Paris Saint-Germain, who beat Rennes 1-0 on Friday thanks to Angel di Maria’s second-half strike.
It was a largely frustrating evening at the Stade de l’Aube for Lyon who rarely tested home goalkeeper Paul Bernardoni despite countless efforts on goal.
Bernardoni did make a sharp one-handed stop to push away Corentin Tolisso’s deflected strike just before Jean was sent off for a heavy challenge on Sergi Darder 10 minutes before half time.
Jordan Ferri and Alexandre Lazacatte went close either side of the break, but Lyon struggled to break down a gritty Troyes outfit still searching for a first victory this term.
However, the visitors were awarded a penalty, despite strong protests from Troyes players, with 11 minutes remaining when Chris Mavinga brought down Lacazette in the box.
Beauvue calmly sent Bernardoni the wrong way from the spot for his fourth goal of the season to send Lyon second, level on season points with Angers and Saint-Etienne.
Earlier, Christophe Galtier’s men brushed aside a slumping Reims side 3-0 with second-half goals from Robert Beric and Valentin Eysseric plus an own-goal from Prince Oniangue.
Gazelec Ajaccio strung together a second straight win as Mohamed Larbi struck twice to help the islanders beat Bordeaux 2-0, pulling level with 17th-placed Montpellier, who drew 1-1 at fellow strugglers Toulouse.
Benjamin Moukandjo struck deep into stoppage time to rescue a point for Lorient in a bad-tempered 2-2 draw at Brittany rivals Guingamp.
Moukandjo converted a penalty to make it 1-1 just past the hour, but Yannis Salibur restored Guingamp’s lead six minutes from time before Moukandjo struck his second of the contest.
Sadio Diallo’s first-half goal guided Bastia to a 1-0 victory over Caen as the Normandy club dropped two places to fifth.
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