Monaco regain three-point advantage, Lyon waste Lacazette's 20th goal

Monaco remained three points clear of the defending champions Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 football championship with a 5-0 thrashing of Metz at home, while Alexandre Lacazette's 20th league goal was not enough to prevent Lyon's 1-2 loss against Guingamp away.

Teenage striker Kylian Mbappe on Saturday finished with a brilliant hat-trick in Monaco's win, and Radamel Falcao had his 15th and 16th goals to power the leaders forward at the Stade Louis II, reports Xinhua.

Metz have been back on track with 10 points from five league games in 2017. However, the team still headed for its sixth straight Ligue 1 loss to Monaco when Mbappe put Falcao's heading pass into the goal left-footed.

Falcao, who turned 31 on Friday, doubled the lead two minutes later. The Monaco's striking duo shone with their combining five goals of the night.

Another spotlight striker of the season, Lacazette didn't taste the win as Mbappe and Falcao. He reached the 20-goal mark for the third straight season by converting teamwork into a goal in the 10th minute.

But Lyon's poor defence squandered the advantage as Guingamp midfielders Moustapha Diallo and Nicolas Benezet turned the table in just four minutes.

Lyon's Rachid Ghezzal was obviously dissatisfied with his teammates' sloppy defense as he pointed the finger at his teammates.

"In terms of their second goal, they were two against four or five of us and they still managed to find each other. That's not normal," Ghezzal said.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Dijon beat Caen 2-0, Lille lost to Angers 2-1, Nancy lost to Montpellier 3-0, and Toulouse crushed over Bastia 4-1.

--IANS

pur/vt