PARIS: Olympique Lyon­nais Lyon secured a second straight Ligue 1 victory to continue their upturn in form under new coach Laurent Blanc with a 1-0 success over Lille.

The seven-time French champions replaced Peter Bosz with former France and Paris Saint-Germain boss Blanc following a five-match winless run. But Lyon backed up last weekend’s success at Montpellier with a dogged display to edge out Lille at the Groupama Stadium.

Alexandre Lacazette fired in a winner with 16 minutes remaining, scoring his eighth league goal since returning to Lyon from Arsenal.

Earlier on Sunday, Lorient missed the chance to retake third place in the table from Rennes, who saw off Montpellier 3-0, as they were beaten 2-1 at home by Nice.

Lorient led through Burkinabe forward Dango Ouattara’s goal, but Youcef Atal and Gaetan Laborde struck in the space of eight second-half minutes to win the match for the away team.

The three points moved Nice into 10th place, four points and two spots below Lyon.

Breel Embolo and Aleksandr Golovin scored as AS Monaco beat bottom side Angers 2-0 to move three points adrift of the top four.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2022