LYON: Brazilian Tete and returning striker Alexandre Lacazette scored early to set up Olympique Lyonnais for a 2-1 home win over promoted AC Ajaccio as both teams finished the first half with 10 men in the opening game of the Ligue 1 campaign on Friday.

Lyon, hoping for a major improvement after a disappointing eighth-place finish last season, got off to a bright start with a 12th minute goal from Tete, set up by Lacazette who is back in Lyon colours after signing from Arsenal.

Former Shakhtar Donetsk striker Tete, who joined Lyon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then won the penalty from a Cedric Avinel foul.

That allowed Lacazette to make it 2-0 for his 101st goal with Lyon ten minutes later.

But the hosts side were down to 10 men before the half-hour mark when goalkeeper Anthony Lopes was dismissed for a dangerous tackle and Thomas Mangani pulled one back for the Corsican club from the resultant spot kick.

However, Ajaccio’s one-man advantage lasted only until just before halftime when Romain Hamouma was sent off for a second cautionable offence.

“We had to win the first game at home,” said Lyon coach Peter Bosz. “We could see the importance of Alexandre Lacazette, the respect of the opponent for him, the support of the fans are a good thing, but he can do better. We were leading 2-0 after twenty minutes playing well. The sending off after thirty minutes changed a lot of things. Luckily they also got a red card which helped us.”

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2022