Ligue 1: Lyon signs a brilliant victory against Nice (2-0) with goals from Dembélé and Toko Ekambi

The Gones ate the Aiglons. Under pressure before this 24th day of Ligue 1, the players of Olympique Lyonnais signed a nice coup by clearly dominating Nice on Saturday (2-0). Moussa Dembélé launched the beautiful evening for Peter Bosz’s men by converting a penalty (8th), Karl Toko-Ekambi scored the break goal (52nd) against overwhelmed and harmless visitors despite the optics of regaining second place in the ranking. OM will be able to distance themselves on Sunday. Lyon go back to sixth place, five points behind their victim of the evening.

Eager to react after their defeat in Monaco (2-0), the Lyonnais appeared at kick-off in a coherent 4-2-3-1 but without Jérôme Boateng, dismissed for bad conduct. Thiago Mendes, his replacement in central defense, immediately had to work and tackle Amine Gouiri who had just entered his area (1st). OL responded in stride and obtained a penalty for an involuntary handball from Justin Kluivert, somewhat pushed by Castello Lukeba (3rd). After a first attempt rejected by Walter Benitez but also marked by several offenses in the Nice area, Dembélé benefited from a second chance and ended up transforming the sanction (1-0, 8th).

The Lyon center-forward had just scored his 8th goal of the season in the league, the 4th in the first quarter of an hour. Above all, he both put his partners on the right track and rewarded their very biting start. Superior in envy, pressing and vivacity, Lyon confiscated the ball and hurt an opposing defense unable to restart properly. Flavius ​​Daniliuc struggled throughout the match, Melvin Bard had no respite against Romain Faivre. Jean-Clair Todibo and Dante struggled to repel the danger as best they could (24th).

Nice unrecognizable

Benitez also worked against Toko-Ekambi (30th). Gouiri, who no longer saw the ball in attack, replaced his goalkeeper and pushed back a header from Thiago Mendes on his line from a corner (41st). The Nice striker tried to stand out in front but the impeccable Tanguy Ndombélé narrowly took over in addition to reigning over the midfield in the company of Maxence Caqueret (45th). At the break, Nice had still not fired a single shot.

The Lyonnais, they remained sharp on the recovery and made the break on a small recovery at close range from Toko-Ekambi after good work from Faivre and a low cross from Ndombélé on the right (2-0, 52nd). Dembélé believed to obtain a new penalty but was slightly offside before going to cause a fault of Benitez (57th). The four changes of Christophe Galtier (59th and 65th) did not change anything, his players were definitely overwhelmed. Lucas Paqueta and Dembélé were even able to afford some nice technical gestures with roulette and a small bridge at stake (66th).

On the other hand and despite several good situations (76th, 77th, 80th and 89th), the Gones did not know how to definitively kill the match. They still avoided the disastrous scenario of the first leg which had seen them bow to the wire after counting two goals in advance until the 80th minute (3-2). Nice does not confirm its great midweek victory over OM in the Coupe de France (4-1). Lyon recovers and wins a fourth game in its last 5 in the league. What to believe in his chances of going to fight for a place in the Champions League even if he will have to continue against Lens next weekend.