VILLENEUVE D’ASCQ: Lille and Olympique Lyonnais drew 3-3 on Friday after their Ligue 1 encounter exploded in a late burst of goals and controversy.

After a scoreless first half, Jonathan David gave the home team the lead in the first minute of the second half, turning in a cross by Jonathan Bamba.

David added a second from the penalty spot on the hour after Lyon’s Rayan Cherki pushed Gabriel Gudmundsson.

Bradley Barcola blasted Lyon back into the game three minutes later.

Lyon coach Laurent Blanc brought on star striker Alexandre Lacazette, who had been out injured for a month. The change led to the last three goals.

Seven minutes after coming on, Lacazette handled, conceding a penalty that David converted for his first Ligue 1 hat-trick to leave Lille 3-1 up. The Canadian moved to 19 league goals overtaking Kylian Mbappe as the division’s top scorer.

Lacazette pulled one goal back with a header after 83 minutes and then levelled in the 89th minute.

Deep into stoppage time, referee Benoit Bastien awarded Lille a third penalty after Bamba went down under a challenge from Dejan Lovren.

As Adam Ounas lined up to take the penalty, the referee consulted the pitch-side monitor and decided to show Bamba a yellow card instead.

Lille missed a chance to climb to fifth and into the European places. Lyon climbed two places but are eighth a further six points back.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023