Lyon vs Paris Saint-Germain. French Ligue 1.
Stade des LumieresAttendance57,624.
Sunday 3 February 2019 22:50, UK
Leaders Paris Saint-Germain suffered their first Ligue 1 defeat of the season as Lyon claimed a deserved 2-1 victory on Sunday evening.
Angel Di Maria fired the visitors in front after just seven minutes, but Moussa Dembele equalised in the first half and then won a penalty early in the second which was converted by Nabil Fekir.
The result means PSG remain 10 points clear of Lille at the top of the table, with Lyon just three points further back after a third straight win.
PSG had the chance to open the scoring inside the first minute after the home defence failed to deal with Di Maria's through ball, but Kylian Mbappe's shot was tame and too close to goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, who made a comfortable
save.
However, it did not take long for the visitors to break the deadlock after Houssem Aouar was caught in possession in his own half by Julian Draxler, who advanced before setting up Di Maria on the left-hand side of the area to fire across goal into the bottom corner.
Lyon responded well to going behind and proceeded to dominate the rest of the first half, with Bertrand Traore the first to bring the best out of PSG goalkeeper Alphonse Areola after being set up by Memphis Depay.
Another Depay cross should then have been converted by Dembele, only for the striker to head wide from close range, while Areola then pulled off a brilliant double save from Traore's initial shot and Depay's close-range follow-up when the former Manchester United player looked certain to score.
Lyon eventually claimed the equaliser their play deserved after 33 minutes when Areola appeared to stumble as he came to collect a cross from Leo Dubois and Dembele had the simple task of heading into an empty net from six yards.
But the visitors could still have gone into the interval with the lead after Di Maria's goal-bound shot was cleared off the line by a diving header from Jason Denayer and Edinson Cavani badly misjudged an attempted lob after being played in by Juan Bernat.
Lyon made the ideal start to the second half when Thiago Silva was adjudged to have brought down Dembele just inside the area and Fekir made no mistake with the resulting penalty.
With their unbeaten record on the line PSG went in search of an equaliser and Mbappe drew a good save from Lopes at his near post, but in truth it was Lyon who had the better chances to score again.
Dembele hit a shot straight at Areola and substitute Maxwel Cornet also saw a good opportunity go begging, but the home side held for a deserved victory which could breathe some unexpected life into the title race.
Elsewhere, Andy Delort's well-taken goal earned Montpellier a 1-1 draw at southern rival Nimes and moved the team up to fifth place.
Nimes started with intent and opened the scoring after two minutes when defender Loick Landre headed in from a corner.
Montpellier hit back when Delort latched onto strike partner Gaetan Laborde's pass, and then coolly lobbed the goalkeeper for his eighth league goal of the season.
The draw moved Montpellier one point behind fourth-placed Saint-Etienne while Nimes are in 11th place and edging closer to ensuring another season in Ligue 1.
