Struggling Lyon lose at Guingamp

Paris (AFP) – Lyon slumped to a damaging 2-1 defeat at Guingamp on Saturday despite France striker Alexander Lacazette netting his 20th goal of the Ligue 1 season.

Lacazette curled in a superb 10th-minute opener at the Stade du Roudourou as Lyon sought to build momentum on the back of Wednesday’s 4-0 rout of Nancy.

But the visitors were blindsided by two goals in the space of four minutes as Moustapha Diallo levelled on the half-hour mark before Nicolas Benezet’s glancing header snapped Guingamp’s six-game winless run.

Lyon received a hostile welcome from sections of their own fans at Parc OL in midweek following last Sunday’s loss at bitter Rhone rivals Saint-Etienne and their latest setback adds to the enveloping gloom.

Bruno Genesio’s side are 12 points adrift of the Champions League places after losing four of their last six matches and travel to Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar in the first leg of the Europa League last 32 on Thursday.

“It’s symptomatic of teams that are suffering from doubt: they had two big chances and scored twice,” Lyon right-back Christophe Jallet told Canal+ Sport.

“We’re all doing everything to get going again in the right direction, to move towards, but we haven’t been rewarded and we can’t say we didn’t try everything to get back into the match.”

He added: “It’s true we’ve lost far too many matches this season to compete for the top three.”

Leaders Monaco will try to re-establish their three-point lead at the top of the table when they host Metz, with Paris Saint-Germain drawing level with the principality side following Friday’s 3-0 win at Bordeaux.

Edinson Cavani scored twice — taking his season’s tally to 25 — with Angel Di Maria also on target as PSG warmed up for Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Barcelona in pleasing fashion.

Nice are three points behind in third but will be without Mario Balotelli for Sunday’s trip to Rennes with the Italian striker unwell.

All matches in France’s top flight this weekend will feature a minute’s silence prior to kick-off to honour the 17 people killed in a stadium stampede in Angola. Friday’s crush also left 56 people injured and government officials have launched an investigation into the tragedy.