The “General” shook the red lantern. With a hat-trick in a single match, Alexandre Lacazette doubled his number of goals and gave Olympique Lyonnais their second victory of the season, and their first at home (3-0 against Toulouse) during the 15th day, Sunday 10 December. Lyon returns to one length behind the penultimate, Clermont, held in check by Lille (0-0), and three from maintaining 15th place. Coach Pierre Sage collects his first victory after two lost matches since he replaced Fabio Grosso, dismissed after a defeat against LOSC (2-0).
Much higher in the ranking, OGC Nice returns to 2nd place, four lengths behind Paris Saint-Germain, winner of Nantes on Saturday (2-1), and moves back in front of its Riviera rival Monaco, which had won in Rennes (2-1).
Always parsimonious in attack, Nice scored more than one goal for only the fourth time this season and ended up winning thanks to Gaëtan Laborde and Jérémie Boga, who took advantage of an error by goalkeeper Yehvann Diouf to restore the lead. The advantage to his team while the Reims captain, Yunis Abdelhamid, had just equalized.
In the three matches played at 3 p.m., the good operation for the Brestois was another Jérémy, Le Douaron, scorer in the last quarter of an hour. He had already scored the previous week against Strasbourg (1-1). The Finisterians are back in the race for Europe, two points behind Lille (4th), slowed down in Clermont.
The Auvergnats remain penultimate in this race to maintain their position, where Strasbourg pulled off a sleight of hand by beating Le Havre (2-1) at the last second, with a header from its Ivorian defender Abakar Sylla. The Alsatians have gained four places compared to Sunday morning’s ranking, are 10th and overtake their opponent, Metz (12th), Rennes (13th) and Montpellier (14th), held in check by Lens (0-0) on Friday.