LYON GO FOURTH WITH WIN IN ANGERS

Olympique Lyonnais leapfrogged Girondins de Bordeaux into fourth with a 2-1 win over Angers SCO on Friday evening. Mathieu Valbuena (17') and Nabil Fekir (42') got the goals for OL at the recently renamed Stade Raymond Kopa.

 Angers SCO 1-2 Olympique Lyonnais 

THE MATCH
Angers had a pair of early chances, with Thomas Mangani seeing the ball nicked off his toe by Christophe Jallet on the Lyon penalty spot (11') before Baptiste Santamaria tested visiting goalkeeper Anthony Lopes with a fizzing long-range shot (15'). It was OL who drew first blood, though, with Valbuena bundling the ball home after Maxime Gonalons had forced a save from Lopes' opposite number, Alexandre Letellier (17'). Les Scoïstes refused to let their heads go down after that early set-back, and they were unlucky not to draw level when Cheikh N'Doye raced onto a poor back-pass from Mouctar Diakhaby only to see Lopes make a fine stop once again (33'). Les Gones punished that profligacy with half-time approaching. Fekir forced a free-kick from Mangani before stepping up the curl home the second with a shot that slithered under Letellier (42').

Lyon hold on

N'Doye made amends for his earlier miss less than five minutes after the restart, outmuscling Diakhaby and Jérémy Morel to convert a Mangani corner (49'), but the hosts should nonetheless have found themselves two goals behind within the hour. Maxime Gonalons rose highest to meet a Valbuena corner with a header that beat Letellier, but Vincent Manceau was on hand to clear the danger in his 'keeper's stead (58'). At the other end, Manceau crossed for N'Doye but the Angers captain came off second best against Lopes for the second time (63'). Angers were reduced to 10 men late on when Mateo Pavlovic was given his marching orders for a bad foul on Corentin Tolisso (76'). Tolisso limped off minutes later (79') but Lyon held on to win 2-1.

THE PLAYER: Nabil Fekir
Normally a second striker, Fekir lined up at the point of Lyon's attack in the injury-enforced absences of Alexandre Lacazette and Memphis Depay. The France cap looked comfortable throughout, forcing the free-kick from which he doubled the scoring to take his season tally to seven in the league and 12 in all competitions.

THE STAT: 68
Bruno Génésio's side have now plundered 68 goals in Ligue 1 this season - an average of two per game. Only league leaders AS Monaco (92) and champions Paris Saint-Germain (71) have scored more.