Dembele fires Lyon to victory at Bordeaux; Nimes beat Reims

Moussa Dembele scored the winner as Rudi Garcia’s Lyon came from behind to win 2-1 at Bordeaux on Saturday. Lyon are now only four points adrift of Rennes in the race for Champions League qualification, after the third-placed outfit’s 1-0 loss to Marseille on Friday.

Jimmy Briand capitalised on Joachim Andersen’s dreadful back-pass to put Bordeaux ahead in the 15th minute, but Lyon struck twice in three second-half minutes.

Maxwel Cornet’s deflected effort drew the visitors level five minutes after the break before Dembele, reportedly coveted by numerous English Premier League clubs, netted his 11th Ligue 1 goal of the season.

Former Arsenal centre-back Laurent Koscielny thought he had snatched Bordeaux a point late on, but saw his effort ruled out by VAR for offside.

It was Lyon’s first league outing of 2020 after scoring 10 goals across back-to-back domestic cup wins over Brest and Bourg-en-Bresse.

“The two wins in the cups did us good,” said Garcia.

“I don’t dislike winning 2-1 rather than by winning by more goals, we’re going to stay grounded. We absolutely have to put a run of victories together.”

Reims missed the chance to move up to fourth place after losing at struggling Nimes 1-0.

Reims lost their spark in attack after selling lively forward Remi Oudin to Bordeaux for a club record 10 million euros ($11.1 million) on Thursday, and saw veteran midfielder Jacques-Alaixys Romao sent off after 57 minutes.

Burly striker Renaud Ripart got an early goal and midfielder Yassine Benrahou added a last-gasp free kick for Nimes, who remained in 19th place.

Montpellier climbed above Lyon into fifth spot after strikers Gaetan Laborde and Andy Delort netted in a 2-1 win at Amiens, giving the southern side its first away win of the season.

Ghana defender John Boye scored midway through the second half as Metz beat visiting Strasbourg 1-0.

Toulouse remained rock bottom after losing 5-2 at home to Brest, who trailed 2-1 until the 72nd minute. Patrick Vieira’s Nice side scraped a 1-1 draw at Angers.

Agencies



French Ligue 1 results on Saturday:

Bordeaux 1 (Briand 15) Lyon 2 (Cornet 50, Dembele 53)

Amiens 1 (Dibassy 14) Montpellier 2 (Laborde 50, Delort 83)

Angers 1 (Thioub 37) Nice 1 (Cyprien 45+4-pen)

Metz 1 (Boye 68) Strasbourg 0

Nimes 2 (Ripart 15, Benrahou 90+3) Reims 0

Toulouse 2 (Diakite 16, 21) Brest 5 (Court 7, Charbonier 72, 77, Mbock 79, Cardona 85)