Lyon beats Sochaux 2-0 in French league.

October 30, 2008

Lyon beats Sochaux 2-0 in French league. Lyon beat Sochaux 2-0 with goals from Karim Benzema and Cesar Delgado and increased its lead to three points in the French league on Wednesday.

France forward Benzema fired from the edge of the box in the 66th minute for his league-leading seventh goal this season.

Two minutes into injury time, Delgado chipped over goalkeeper Teddy Richert.

“I missed two scoring chances in the first half so I had to redeem myself because we needed that victory,” Benzema said. “I scored a nice goal in the second half but I’m especially happy because the win is doing us a lot of good.”

Bottom-placed Sochaux was reduced to nine men after midfielder Stephane Dalmat was red-carded in the 81st for a tackle on Miralem Pjanic while centerback Damien Perquis received a second yellow card in stoppage time.

After 11 rounds, Lyon tops the standings with 24 points followed by Brodeaux and Toulouse on 21 each. Marseille slipped to fourth place with 20.

Lyon was under pressure before kickoff as Bordeaux routed Le Havre 4-0 on Tuesday to take the provisional lead.

Also on Wednesday, it was: Nantes 1, Marseille 1; Le Mans 0, Auxerre 2; Paris Saint-Germain 0, Toulouse 1; Grenoble 0, Lille 0; Valenciennes 0, Rennes 0; Caen 1, Nice 1; Monaco 3, Nancy 1; Saint-Etienne 1, Lorient 4.

Nantes opened the scoring against the run of play as fullback Remy Mareval fired a powerful strike from 30 meters into the top corner in the 44th.

But Ivory Coast forward Bakari Kone leveled for Marseille in the 76th with a semi-volley off a pass from Mamadou Samassa.

“The result is disappointing,” Marseille coach Eric Gerets told Europe 1 radio. “Today we lost two points. We played well but we lacked the finishing touch.”

Nantes forward Christian Bekamenga was sent off in the 79th after picking up a second yellow card for handling.

Dennis Oliech scored twice to help mid-table Auxerre stun Le Mans.

The Kenya international dribbled past goalkeeper Yohann Pele to flick the ball into the empty net in the 35th before beating Pele again from close range three minutes later.

Le Mans dropped to fifth place with 18 points.

Toulouse upset PSG thanks to defender Zoumana Camara diverting a corner kick into his own net in the 65th.

“We made a stupid mistake on the goal,” PSG coach Paul Le Guen acknowledged. “If you can’t win, then you have to seek a draw. But we didn’t have the strength to go and get the equalizer.”

In Caen, Steve Savidan headed in a cross from Julien Toudic in the 67th to put the host side ahead and bring his season tally to six goals. But Loic Remy converted a penalty in the 85th to equalize for Nice.

Frederic Nimani’s fourth goal this season gave Monaco a 1-0 lead. He converted a rebound in the 32nd after Nancy goalkeeper Gennaro Bracigliano stopped a shot from South Korea midfielder Park Chu-Young. Nikola Pokrivac doubled the lead in the 63rd with a free kick.

Youssouf Hadji slipped the ball past Monaco goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier in the 75th to pull one goal back for Nancy.

Substitute Alexandre Licata sealed the win for Monaco in the 88th with a 25-meter drive.

Lorient midfielder Jeremy Morel outpaced the Saint-Etienne defense to shoot past goalkeeper Jody Viviani in the 19th.

Saint-Etienne rallied in the 33rd when a header from Bafetimbi Gomis crashed against the crossbar before bouncing in off goalkeeper Lionel Cappone.

Bertrand Robert benefited from Kevin Gameiro’s crossing twice to score from close range in the 56th and 70th.

Ghana international Andre Ayew took advantage of a mishap from Viviani to make it 4-1 in the 88th with a tap-in.

Lorient leapfrogged Saint-Etienne into fourteenth place with 12 points.