THE MATCH

Niko Kovac's men had seen Lyon inch ahead of them with Saturday's defeat of Lorient — the visit to the Stade Auguste Delaune where the hosts had not won in seven top-flight matches seemed the ideal hunting ground for the victory that would take them back onto the podium.

So it proved, though it was not quite as easy as Monaco would have hoped. They had Wissam ben Yedder and Kevin Volland, who been involved in 40 of Monaco's 73 league goals this season, in the starting XI to trouble the home defence, but it was teenager Matazo who made the breakthrough.

The Belgian midfielder had impressed in his handful of appearances this season, and did so once more with his first senior strike. Matazo himself was at the start of the move, finding Ben Yedder on the right after a surging run forward. Ben Yedder's return pass — through the legs of Yunes Abdelhamid — was perfectly weighted to enable Matazo to fire beyond Predrag Rajkovic (20').

Matazo might have had a second but failed to turn the ball on target after rounding Rajkovic following another Ben Yedder tee-up (25'), and Reims, who had lost just one of their previous 11 L1 games, showed the principality side they could not afford to be too wasteful when Boulaye Dia tested Benjamin Lecomte (28').

Wout Faes' challenge on Volland appeared to have gifted Ben Yedder the opportunity to double the visitors' lead from the penalty spot seconds before the break, but referee Antony Gautier annulled the award of a spot-kick after consulting VAR (45').

Reims had won two of their last three league games after falling behind, and David Guion's men showed their bouncebackability after the interval. Faes headed narrowly wide (57') and Lecomte denied Mathieu Cafaro (58') as Monaco wobbled, a week after their potentially damaging defeat to Lyon.

They regrouped, however, and substitute Gelson Martins drew a stop from Rajkovic (76') before Thomas Foket nipped in front of the Portugal international to cut out a Kevin Volland ball when a clear-cut opportunity looked on the cards (79').

Monaco held on for all three points — and a ninth clean sheet in 11 games — to move a point clear of Lyon and find themselves just a point behind second-placed Paris Saint-Germain ahead of the champions' game at Rennes on Sunday evening with just two rounds of matches remaining.

THE PLAYER: Eliot Matazo

The teenage midfielder continues to look like yet another rough diamond being polished to a shine in the principality. Along with Tchouameni and Youssouf Fofana, Monaco appear to have three young midfielders who could help them dominate the division in seasons to come.

THE STAT: 3

This was Monaco's first league win in Reims in three visits to Champagne country.

Elsewhere, Gaëtan Laborde scored twice either side of a strike from fellow frontman Andy Delort as Montpellier raced into a 3-0 lead at Strasbourg before hanging on for a 3-2 win in Alsace. Thierry Laurey's men remain in trouble at the bottom of the table, and are just three points above 19th-placed Nîmes as they scored three times in the second half for a resounding 3-0 win at Metz.

Nice also scored three times, including an 89th-minute winner from Hassane Kamara, to come back from 2-0 down at home to Brest. Angers also hit a treble as they defeated relegated Dijon.

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