Fekir's late winner boosts Lyon

Skipper Nabil Fekir's brilliant free-kick in stoppage time lifted Lyon to a 3-2 home victory over defending champions Monaco, who dropped more points with their second straight winless Ligue 1 match.

Monaco, in the hope of getting back on the winning track following their 1-1 tie against Montpellier, rested their top scorer Radamel Falcao coming back from midweek's World Cup qualifiers, and handed Keita Balde his first start since joining from Lazio during the off-season, reports Xinhua news agency.

After seeing back-to-back 3-3 ties in the last two rounds, Lyon broke the deadlock in the 11th minute on Friday, as new recruit Mariano Diaz swept it home at the back post, before that was cancelled by Rony Lopes' goal set up by Balde six minutes later.

Fekir put the hosts in front again in the 23rd minute, only to see no response from Monaco goalkeeper Danijel Subasic. However, Monaco managed to get back to the same starting line as Adama Traore hit the target on 34 minutes.

Fekir finally shone with his free-kick feat five minutes into injury time, leaving Subasic helpless.

Lyon provisionally moved up to the third position, while for Monaco following the departure of several of their key players this summer, a six-point gap from Paris Saint-Germain was expected if the current leaders win at Dijon on Saturday.

PSG will miss several players on the Dijon trip following their international actions, including Edinson Cavani, Layvin Kurzawa, Thiago Motta, Thiago Silva and Marco Verratti.

--IANS

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