Lyon romped past Nancy 3-1 on Saturday to overtake reigning champions Bordeaux at the top of Ligue 1.
French international and former Saint Etienne striker Batefembi Gomis fired Lyon into a 37th-minute lead and in-form Argentine striker Lisandro Lopez, having combined with Miralem Pjanic to lay on the opener, clipped home a second five minutes after the restart.
Youssouf Hadji gave Nancy hope when he reduced the arrears six minutes later, but a swerving rocket from Manuel Bastos secured Lyon’s third win in four games with 22 minutes left, suggesting they have every intention of landing an eighth title in the past nine seasons after Bordeaux snapped their streak last May.
PHOTO: AFP
Lyon moved onto 10 points from four games, one clear of Bordeaux, who have a game in hand.
On the day predecessor Karim Benzema made his first start for Real Madrid, Lopez, already instrumental in taking the French outfit into the Champions League group stage, showed Lyon fans he is perfectly capable of filling the France striker’s boots with his smartly-taken goal.
His all-round play had the home crowd purring with appreciation, setting aside pre-season worries that a revamped team might not gel immediately.
Earlier, the match between Nice and Montpellier was halted for 20 minutes after visiting fans threw flares onto the pitch from the away end, a reporter at the ground said.
Referee Laurent Duhamel sent the teams to the dressing room on the hour, but play resumed some 20 minutes later after police had intervened and detained several fans in the terrace concerned.
Montpellier, who were leading 2-0 at the time, won 3-0 to move provisionally third on eight points, a point behind Bordeaux.
Saint Etienne finally got off the mark at home to modest Grenoble, with Christophe Landrin scoring the only goal of the game midway through the first half.
Elsewhere, promoted Lens continued their solid start, building on two victories for one loss with a 2-2 home draw with Rennes at the Stade Bollaert.
Monaco, in contrast, lost touch with the top third of the table after a Vaclav Sverkos penalty was sufficient to give Sochaux a 1-0 victory over the principality side.
Auxerre and Boulogne parted goalless in a battle of two strugglers.
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