Mario Balotelli was sent off on his return to OGC Nice, but Lucien Favre’s side held on for a 1-0 win against Lorient on Saturday, which closed the gap on Ligue 1 leaders AS Monaco.
Wylan Cyprien scored the only goal of the game in Brittany, collecting Arnaud Souquet’s pass and firing home from inside the area in the 15th minute.
The result allowed Nice to go back above Paris Saint-Germain into second place and close to within three points of Monaco, who could only draw 1-1 against SC Bastia on Friday.
Photo: AFP
“To win away from home does us good and it is well deserved because we had to hold on at 10 against 11,” Favre said.
“We saw how difficult it is for all teams with the Monaco result, so logically it was going to be difficult for us too,” he said.
Balotelli was sent off after apparently talking out of turn to match referee Tony Chapron midway through the second half.
Photo: AFP
It was his third red card this season in the French top flight, although his first, also against Lorient in October last year, was later overturned.
“I didn’t see what happened. All of a sudden the card came out. Apparently there were words,” Favre said.
The Italian, who has scored nine league goals, has endured a frustrating couple of weeks. He was dropped from the team for a 1-0 win against AS Saint-Etienne and then missed last week’s draw against Stade Rennais due to illness, but returned in Lorient in place of injured leading scorer Alassane Plea.
It was a first away win since the end of November for Nice, while Lorient remain rooted to the foot of the table.
Elsewhere, Olympique de Marseille overcame the absence of injured leading scorer Bafetimbi Gomis to beat Rennes 2-0 and boost their hopes of European qualification.
Clinton Njie and Florian Thauvin, the latter with a superb strike, both netted in the second half for the hosts as Marseille moved to within a point of fourth-placed Olympique Lyonnais, albeit having played two games more.
“We had an obligation to win here and it was quite an accomplished performance,” said Marseille coach Rudi Garcia, whose team face great rivals PSG next.
“Life without Bafe is possible, but in a different style. Now we have eight days before the match against PSG, but first of all we will enjoy this result,” he said.
On-loan Swansea City striker Gomis, scorer of 16 league goals this season, sustained a knee injury in last weekend’s defeat against Nantes that will rule him out for about a month.
Njie, filling in as the central striker, fired home first-time after the ball broke to him inside the area to open the scoring just before the hour mark.
Five minutes later Marseille had scored again thanks to a superb goal from Thauvin as he smashed a shot high into the net on his left foot to make it 2-0.
There was no way back after that for Rennes, who have now gone 10 league games without a win.
Lille OSC eased their relegation fears with a 1-0 win against fellow strugglers Stade Malherbe Caen in their first game under new coach Franck Passi.
They had defender Adama Soumaoro sent off just after the hour mark, but Anwar El Ghazi, a January signing from Ajax, struck the only goal of the game with 20 minutes remaining.
Giant Malian striker Cheick Diabate’s late penalty secured a 1-1 draw for Metz at home against Nantes, while Angers SCO beat AS Nancy-Lorraine 1-0.
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