Lyon’s Late Lift, Mahe’s Marseille Hat-Trick: Ligue 1’s Big Sunday

74. That is Olympique Lyonnais’s points total after 33 games, and it came with a reminder that a lead is not the same thing as a quiet life. On Sunday 11 May, Lyon won 2-1 at AS Monaco with José Manuel Cifuentes scoring in the 93rd minute. The leaders remain seven points clear of FC Nantes, who drew 0-0 with ESTAC Troyes; Lyon’s late strike did rather more for the title mood than the arithmetic suggests.

Lyon’s win matters especially because Monaco had made them work for it. The home side led through Juan Luis Revuelta, who scored in the 25th minute with a close-range shot at mid height. Fernando Vela levelled for Lyon 12 minutes later, his high shot restoring a balance that the evening then stubbornly refused to settle.

Monaco, fifth on 54 points, had enough of the contest to make Lyon’s escape feel anything but routine. Four Lyon players were booked, too, as the match kept its edge.

Then Cifuentes supplied the line that will travel furthest. In added time, he sent a low shot from outside the box into the net and put the leaders ahead. Lyon had been under pressure; their answer was an ending with no interest in being polite.

There was a personal twist for Monaco in the 45th-minute arrival of Ido Hayat, who spent 11 seasons at Lyon before joining his former club’s opponents. Juan Luis Revuelta, once a Lyon player himself, had already put Monaco in front. The old connections offered plenty of subtext; the points went with the visitors.

Lyon remain first, seven points ahead of Nantes, while Monaco stay fifth. They merely took the most valuable result of Sunday, and did so at the moment when a draw seemed ready to make the evening more complicated.

Marseille’s Mahe-made afternoon

Olympique de Marseille’s 4-1 win over Stade Malherbe Caen belonged to Alex Mahe, who scored a hat-trick and was the day’s most conspicuous French performer. His first, in the 23rd minute, was a low shot with the foot. Caen replied three minutes later through Maximilien Lenfant, whose low, hard drive from close range brought the score level and briefly interrupted Marseille’s plans for a comfortable afternoon.

The interruption did not last. Jacques Wamba put Marseille ahead from the penalty spot in the 48th minute. Mahe then scored two more penalties, in the 61st and 89th minutes: the first went through the middle at mid height, the second high through the middle. It was a hat-trick with no need for decoration, and the match’s standout had his afternoon in full possession.

On Sunday he gave the leaders no reason to think about old loyalties: his three goals helped Marseille move to fourth on 57 points, three behind third-placed OGC Nice. Caen remain 15th.

Lorient and Bordeaux take the less obvious route

FC Lorient beat Montpellier Hérault SC 2-1 in a match that went against the run of play. David Herault put Lorient ahead in the seventh minute with a low shot from close range through the middle. Daouda Diedhiou levelled for Montpellier 11 minutes later, driving low and hard from close range near a post. Guilherme Mulholand’s 39th-minute penalty settled it for Lorient, whose standout was Frédéric Cheze. They are 11th; Montpellier are ninth.

FC Girondins de Bordeaux also found a way through against the run of play, winning 1-0 away to FC Sochaux-Montbéliard. Ville Ahlholm scored the only goal in the 81st minute, heading in from close range at mid height near a post. He was the match’s standout, and Bordeaux are 14th with 38 points. Sochaux are sixth; not every side near the top got the Sunday it wanted.

The other results

Nîmes Olympique beat LOSC Lille 1-0, Pablo scoring in the 22nd minute with a close-range shot along the ground. Nîmes are seventh and Lille 12th. Nantes, second on 67 points, could manage only a goalless draw at 13th-placed Troyes, with Carlos Olsson the standout.

At the bottom, the two places in the relegation zone remain occupied by RC Strasbourg Alsace and Dijon FCO, on 26 and 17 points respectively. RC Lens are 16th with 34 points, eight ahead of Strasbourg; the possibility of 16th going down too has been common enough in recent seasons to make that gap less soothing than it looks. Ligue 1’s Sunday belonged to Lyon’s last-minute nerve and Mahe’s three penalties. Elsewhere, the table kept its own counsel.