Olympique Lyon achieved an incontestable victory against Nice (1-4) and occupied the provisional leadership of Ligue 1 with one more match than Paris Saint-Germain and Lille, who will meet this Sunday at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium.
Rudi García's team did not fail against a rival from the middle zone of the table and returned to the path of victory after drawing last day against Brest (2-2). He did it with an almost crushing dominance founded on a great second half in which equality was broken.
Lyon opened the scoring after half an hour through the Dutch Memphis Depay, who made it 0-1 by launching a penalty from Panenka. Shortly afterwards, Zimbabwean Tino Kadewere made it 0-2 after taking advantage of a tremendous defensive error by Nice and before the break Amine Gouriri reduced the gap with a header to put some equality on the scoreboard.
In the second act, the Cameroonian Toko Ekambi took advantage of an assist from Kadewere to practically close the match and Houssem Aouar finished the night with a shot from inside the area that certified the three points for Lyon, one point above Lille and two from the Paris Saint-Germain.
Olympique Marseille did not go so well on Saturday, losing a draw at their stadium against Reims (1-1), one of the clubs fighting not to lose the category. Weighed down by the own goal in the first half of the Japanese Yuto Nagatomo after deflecting a cross from Arber Zeneli towards his goal, he had to row against the current to try to reverse the result.
Florian Thauvin managed to draw just before the break thanks to an assist from Argentine Dario Benedetto -the third to achieve this course-, but in the second half he got stuck and barely had a chance in the boots of Tunisian Saif-Eddine Khaoui that saved the goalkeeper Serbian Predrag Rajkovic.
In the end, Marseille couldn't break the tie and got stuck in pursuit of Lyon, Lille and Paris Saint-Germain. It is fourth, with two games less than the leader and could lose its position in favor of Montpellier, which faces Brest this Sunday.
The duel of two of the teams fighting for not detaching from positions close to Europe ended with a victory for Metz over Lens (2-0) that tightened both in the standings and are now separated only by one point to two and three of the fifth classified, respectively.
Metz repeated the solid defense that led them to victory last day against Montpellier and managed to chain six points in a row. On the eve of the match, his coach Frédéric Antonetti warned that the clash against Montpellier was “a reference in solidity and seriousness” and his men traced the same attitude a few days later.
In attack, Algerian Farid Boulaya was decisive, who participated in both Metz goals. In the first, he launched a counter attack to Senegalese Opa Nguette, who opened the scoring before the break. And he himself, in the second act, was in charge of closing the account with his third goal of the year in Ligue 1.