Lyon second in Ligue 1 after Caen win

PARIS: Lyon moved second in Ligue 1 after taking advantage of Paris Saint-Germain's slip at Strasbourg with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Caen on Sunday.
Maxwel Cornet's tap-in and Mariano Diaz's stunning 12th league goal of the season were enough for Lyon to blast away the blues of their shock home defeat to struggling Lille midweek and move up to 32 points.
Caen pushed Lyon all the way and pulled a goal back through Ivan Santini in stoppage time but stay seventh on 23 points after their defeat.
Bruno Genesio's Lyon are nine points behind Neymar's league leaders PSG, who lost their unbeaten record in dramatic style at struggling Strasbourg on Saturday, going down 2-1 to the newly-promoted side in a pulsating match ahead of their trip to Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
Marseille, who are fourth on 31 points, will have the chance to overtake Lyon and close the gap between themselves and PSG to seven points when they take on Montpellier later on Sunday.
Lyon came into Sunday's match smarting from their loss to Lille, and took the lead almost immediately, with Cornet lashing home a loose ball from a 10th-minute goalmouth scramble.
Caen kept up the pressure in a scrappy encounter but Diaz made sure of the points nine minutes after the break by crashing a bouncing ball past Caen keeper Remy Vercoutre.
The hosts refused to give up and Santini's neat stoppage-time finish gave the home fans hope, but creaking Lyon managed to keep them at bay and just hold on for the win. — AFP