Lyon survive a 70th-minute red card to beat Nice 2-1 and go top of Ligue 1

Elye Wahi had Nice in front at the Groupama Stadium inside 18 minutes, latching onto a Jonathan Clauss pass to put the visitors ahead. Lyon needed less than a quarter of an hour to turn it around. Pavel Sulc levelled in the 32nd minute, and four minutes later Tanner Tessmann headed in a Zachary Athekame cross to make it 2-1 — the score that stood, just, until the final whistle.

Ten men for the last twenty minutes

Lyon's afternoon got harder in the second half. Keito Nakamura, on as a substitute, was sent off in the 70th minute, leaving the home side to defend a one-goal lead for the last 20 minutes plus stoppage time with ten men. Nice pushed for an equaliser — nine corners to Lyon's one across the match, and five shots on target to Lyon's four — but could not find the breakthrough. Mohamed Abdelmoneim, Niels Nkounkou and Mohamed Amoura were all booked for Nice as the frustration built, with Wahi picking up a late yellow of his own in stoppage time.

• 18' — Elye Wahi (Nice), assisted by Jonathan Clauss
• 32' — Pavel Sulc (Lyon)
• 36' — Tanner Tessmann (Lyon), header, assisted by Zachary Athekame
• 70' — Keito Nakamura (Lyon) sent off

Line-ups

A result that sends Lyon top

Lyon had won two and drawn two of their previous five Ligue 1 matches before this one, the only defeat a 1-2 loss at Lens in the last round. This win now puts them above Paris Saint-Germain, Paris FC, Lille and Monaco — all level with Lyon on 14 points after this round — to the top of the table, their goal difference of +8 the best of the five.

Nice's mixed autumn continues

For Nice, it ends a run of back-to-back home wins over Lille and Strasbourg. They drop to 12th on 8 points, comfortably clear of the bottom of the table but still searching for the consistency that those two results suggested they had found.