Lyon win for Garcia, Lille sweat over Osimhen

Rudi Garcia tasted his first win since being appointed Lyon coach on Saturday when goals from Memphis Depay and Moussa Dembele earned his new side a 2-0 home success over Metz.

This was former Marseille boss Garcia’s third outing in the Lyon dugout since his appointment on October 14 which was greeted by anger after his spell in charge of Lyon’s bitter rivals down at the Velodrome.

Depay, wearing the captain’s armband, was one of the chief architects of Lyon’s first win in nine league games.

The former Manchester United forward scored the 28th minute opener and then earned a generous penalty converted by ex-Celtic man Dembele four minutes later.

The welcome win lifted the former multiple French champions up from one off the relegation zone to 12th.

“Victory was essential,” said Garcia. “I liked the players’ attitude in a controlled match… Our two best strikers scored, and that’s important.”

In second are Nantes, a respectable five points adrift of defending champions PSG who host Marseille on Sunday.

Earlier, third-placed Lille had a bittersweet afternoon, satisfaction at their 3-0 win over Bordeaux tempered by injury to their in-form striker Victor Osimhen.

The Nigerian has scored in every home league game this season but was stretchered off in the second half with a left thigh injury.

“It could be troublesome,” said Lille coach Christophe Galtier whose side are trailing their Champions League group led by Chelsea.

“He’d already felt a pain before (the match). I was going to take him off, but then he got injured. Is it serious? I don’t know yet.”

Lille’s win was largely crafted by Yusuf Yazici, their 16.5 million euros summer recruit from Trabzonspor who opened his account for his new employers with a penalty, and set up Benjamin Andre for the opener and Loic Remy’s injury time contribution.

It moved them up to the top three from seventh, above Reims, who drew 0-0 with Nimes, and Angers, whose away day at Montpellier also ended goalless.

Brest moved up to sixth courtesy of a 2-0 win over Dijon.

On Friday, prolific striker Wissam Ben Yedder grabbed his ninth goal of the season as Monaco handed Nantes their first home Ligue 1 defeat of the campaign.