{"id":3839,"date":"2025-04-14T21:04:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3839"},"modified":"2025-04-14T21:04:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:04:01","slug":"lyon-close-in-on-ucl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3839","title":{"rendered":"Lyon close in on UCL"},"content":{"rendered":"
Lyon scored three goals in the second half to win 3-1 at Auxerre in Ligue 1 on Sunday and claim fourth spot in the table, while Saint-Etienne moved nearer to the relegation play-off spot after drawing 3-3 against Brest.<\/p>\n

A Georges Mikautadze penalty broke the deadlock for Lyon in Auxerre on 54 minutes, before Rayan Cherki added a second eight minutes later with a cute curling finish.<\/p>\n

Lassine Sinayoko pulled one back for the hosts 13 minutes from time to jangle Lyon nerves, until captain Alexandre Lacazette restored the two-goal buffer in the 84th minute.<\/p>\n

The win lifts Paulo Fonseca’s side into fourth on 51 points, one ahead of Lille and Strasbourg in the race for Europe’s premier club competition.<\/p>\n

“Things are going really well,” said Mikautadze.<\/p>\n

“We’re working well in training and that’s reflected in the game. It (today) was one of our most accomplished performances.<\/p>\n

“We’re fourth, we’re in the running for Champions League qualification, and we’ve got a very important game to play in the Europa League.”<\/p>\n

Lyon next turn their attentions to a trip to Old Trafford on Thursday with their Europa League quarter-final against Manchester United finely poised at 2-2 after the first leg.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Brest’s European ambitions took a hit after they drew 3-3 against 17th-placed Saint-Etienne.<\/p>\n

Ludovic Ajorque’s early opener was cancelled out by Lucas Stassin on 16 minutes before Abdallah Sima restored Brest’s lead midway through the first period.<\/p>\n

Irvin Cardona got the hosts back level shortly after the half-hour, before Ajorque struck again to make it 3-2.<\/p>\n

But Eric Roy’s side were unable to see out a valuable three points as Cardona levelled once again for Les Verts with 10 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

The result left Saint-Etienne three points behind Le Havre in the relegation play-off position.<\/p>\n

Le Havre were then hit for five at home by Rennes later in the day.<\/p>\n

Azor Matusiwa, Lorenz Assignon and Arnaud Kalimuendo fired the Bretons into a 3-0 lead inside the opening quarter-hour.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lyon scored three goals in the second half to win 3-1 at Auxerre in Ligue 1 on Sunday and claim fourth spot in the table, while Saint-Etienne moved nearer to the relegation play-off spot after drawing 3-3 against Brest. A Georges Mikautadze penalty broke the deadlock for Lyon in Auxerre on 54 minutes, before Rayan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}