Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette, after one of his goals scored against Toulouse, December 10, 2023. OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP
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 ahead of its Riviera rival Monaco, which, for its part, is was imposed on 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.
Third success in a row for OM
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.
At the end of this 15th day, Olympique de Marseille won (4-2) in Lorient, thanks in particular to a double from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. With this third success in a row in the league, OM settles into 6th place with 23 points, ahead of Lens and Reims on goal difference. For the Merlus, on the other hand, nothing changes, since they remain 16th and virtual roadblocks, only one unit behind Toulouse, 15th.