GUINGAMP (France): En Avant Guingamp’s Christophe Kerbrat (L) challenges Olympique Lyon’s Nabil Fekir during their Ligue 1 match.—AFP

PARIS: Olympique Lyon kept the heat on Paris St Germain in a close-fought Ligue 1 title race after they made light work of 10-man En Avant Guingamp to provisionally snatch the lead with a 3-1 victory at the Stade du Roudourou on Saturday.

Lyon, who won the last of their seven Ligue 1 titles in 2008, prevailed thanks to goals by Nabil Fekir, Alexandre Lacazette and Clinton Nije and have 61 points from 31 games, two ahead of champions PSG who were at third-placed Olympique Marseille (57) in Sunday’s late match.

Lyon’s title challenge has gained momentum because of Lacazette and Fekir, who have 36 league goals bet­ween them, with the former on a league-high 24.

Guingamp’s Jonas Lossl gifted the opener to Fekir as the Danish ‘keeper failed to catch a tame effort and deflected it into his own net with just 27 minutes gone and Laca­zette doubled Lyon’s lead with a penalty 12 minutes later after he was brought down by Baissama Sankoh.

Guingamp were red­uced to 10 men when Christophe Kerbrat was shown a straight red card for a rough tackle on Jordan Ferri on the stroke of half-time and Njie made it 3-0 in the 61st minute before Claudio Beauvue grabbed a consolation goal.

In Sunday’s early match, an injury-time goal by substitute Nicolas Maurice-Belay gave Girondins Bordeaux a 2-1 home victory against relegation-threatened Lens and kept alive their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Europa League.

All the goals came in a frantic last 10 minutes, with Maurice-Belay scoring in the 90th minute after Lens striker Pablo Chavarria’s 87th-minute goal had cancelled out Brazilian defender Mariano’s opener.

Despite the win, Bordeaux have their work cut out to finish in the top four — the only places guaranteeing European football next season — as they are now in sixth place on 51 points, three behind fourth-placed Monaco, who have a game in hand and two adrift of St Etienne in fifth.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2015

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