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.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Starting with three fights in the first nine seconds and ending with a celebration and a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the US on Saturday delivered exactly what Matthew Tkachuk hoped for by beating Canada. “We needed to send a message,” Tkachuk said. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’” Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, brother Brady tussled with Sam Bennett the next time the puck dropped, J.T. Miller dropped the gloves with Colton Parayko next and the Americans followed those fisticuffs with a 3-1 victory over their biggest rival. “That was one of the
Porto and AS Roma on Thursday drew 1-1 in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League playoff, while Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce took a big step toward the last 16 with a 3-0 win over RSC Anderlecht. Zeki Celic gave 2023 runners-up Roma the lead in first-half stoppage-time in Portugal, but Porto defender Francisco Moura’s deflected strike ensured the teams head to Italy next week with the tie finely poised. Roma played the final 18 minutes a man down after Bryan Cristante was sent off for two yellow cards, with coach Claudio Ranieri fuming at the final whistle. In Turkey, former English Premier