Villeneuve-d'Ascq (AFP)

Reduced to ten at the start of the second period, Lyon resisted to clinch a good draw (1-1) on the lawn of Lille, which lets Paris escape at the top of the L1, Sunday at the end of the 9th day.

Les Gones defended heroically in the last half hour and pushed back all Losc's attempts to keep a result obtained with a little success since it was Zeki Celik who equalized by scoring against his camp (41st) after the opening Jonathan Bamba's score with a nice shot (22nd).

The Northerners, arch-domineering after the break, lacked imagination to break through the solid Lyon block and missed a great opportunity to push back a direct competitor to eight lengths for maintenance.

With 19 points, the Lille go back to second place, two units from PSG, and are still undefeated this season.

but they can have regrets.

OL, which had two consecutive successes, continued their good series and climbed to sixth place (14 points).

A good omen before the derby against Saint-Etienne, who himself had a fifth defeat on Sunday.

For this meeting, Christophe Galtier has lined up a rather expected starting XI, if not the replacement of Domagoj Bradaric by Reinildo as the right side.

His Rhone counterpart Rudi Garcia had him renewed the same team arranged in 4-3-3 which had punished Monaco last weekend (4-1).

- Bamba untenable -

The first situation is Lille, with a distant free kick from Renato Sanches shot low to the ground and which crossed the Lyon area before being cleared in extremis by Léo Dubois at the far post (2nd).

Launched in depth by Reinildo, Bamba was then very close to making the difference but Marcelo hampered him enough to prevent him from appearing alone against Anthony Lopes (17th).

The former Stéphanois, author of a superb start to the season and still untenable on Sunday, did not miss his second chance: found behind by Burak Yilmaz outside the area, he unleashed a cross strike that the Rhone goalkeeper could only touch the surface (1-0, 22nd).

Just before, the Gones had a golden opportunity to open the scoring, but Karl Toko-Ekambi had lost his duel with Mike Maignan, who had pushed back his shot at close range (21st).

The situation was repeated soon after, but in the other direction: on a retreating center, Bamba had the ball 2-0 but shot above (37th), while a shot from Houssem Aouar was diverted in his nets by the chest of the unfortunate Celik, who offered the equalizer to OL (1-1, 41st).

- Awkward Marcelo -

In the process, Lille suffered a new blow with the exit of its central defender and captain José Fonte, who took a finger from Depay in the right eye and could not continue due to vision problems (44th) .

Upon returning from the locker room, the scenario took a new turn with the exclusion for a second warning from Marcelo, the central defender of Lyon, guilty of a sole on Bamba (50th).

In numerical superiority, the Losc then confiscated the ball and logically put the Gones on the retreat.

But the Rhone defense folded without breaking.

Thus, the Mastiffs have especially worried their opponent on long strikes, like Bamba (61st), Luiz Araujo (66th), or on a corner returning from Yusuf Yazici narrowly slammed by Lopes (69th).

The Northerners, frustrated, will not really have time to mull over their disappointment since on Thursday they will challenge AC Milan from Zlatan Ibrahimovic to San Siro in the Europa League with the aim of maintaining their invincibility.

© 2020 AFP