Romain Faivre opened his account for Lyon, scoring twice as they swept aside Lorient 4-1 at the Stade du Moustoir on Friday night.
FC Lorient 1-4 Olympique Lyonnais
THE MATCH
Two teams coming off very differing results last weekend met at the Stade du Moustoir. Lyon hoped to put the frustrations of their home defeat to LOSC behind them, whilst Lorient were looking to build on their impressive win at Brest.
Lyon flew out of the traps, controlling the early exchanges with fast-flowing football as Peter Bosz's men made their intentions clear. The Dutch coach was vocal in his annoyance at last week's defeat and looked to his side for an instant reaction.
Faivre on target
It didn't take long for Bosz to get his wish. Neat play between Karl Toko Ekambi and Lucas Paqueta resulted in Romain Faivre lashing home from the edge of the box to open his account for Les Gones (6').
Lorient's first attempt on goal came from captain Laurent Abergel whose strike from 18 yards was gathered by Anthony Lopes (20')
Lyon could and should have extended their lead just three-minutes later when a smart Houssem Aouar through ball found Paqueta, but the Brazilian was thwarted by Les Merlus’ shot-stopper Matthieu Dreyer.
Devastating counter
The visitors didn't have to wait long for their second. A sweeping counter attack down the left saw Emerson cross low for Moussa Dembélé who beautifully backheeled the ball home to extend the advantage (26').
Despite being spurred on by a home support in good voice, Lorient were being given a footballing lesson by Lyon who were dominant in the midfield battle with Aouar and Maxence Caqueret pulling the strings.
It could have been even worse for the Breton side but their blushes were spared when Karl Toko Ekambi's goal was ruled out for offside (42').
Lorient amazingly squandered an opportunity to reduce the arrears on the stroke of half time when Nigerian international Terem Moffi was unable to get the better of Lopes in a one-on-one duel from six-yards out (44').
It was more of the same in the second half with Lyon in cruise control. Dembélé let the hosts off the hook after his unmarked header from six-yards was directed straight into the arms of Dreyer (50').
Game on?
Out of nothing, Lorient suddenly got themselves back into the game when Moffi headed home at the back post following some abject Lyon defending, to register his fourth goal of the season (57').
But Lorient's cause for optimism was cruelly cut short just one-minute later when Toko Ekambi fired low to beat the poorly-positioned Dreyer at his near post, handing Lyon control of the game again.
Les Gones made sure of victory with arguably the goal of the night when Faivre bore down on goal and with only Dreyer to beat, the 23-year-old winger superbly lobbed the Lorient 'keeper to score his second of the game (78').
The icing on the cake for Lyon came in the 84th minute when long-term absentee Jeff Reine-Adélaïde made his long awaited comeback, after missing 13 months of action with a serious knee injury.
The win provisionally moves Peter Bosz's men up to sixth on the table, five points behind Nice in third. Lorient remain in 16th.
THE PLAYER: Romain Faivre
By far the standout performance since his move to Lyon, Romain Faivre looked more like the player who had featured so prominently for Brest in recent times. Wasteful against LOSC last Sunday, Faivre opened his account with two delightful finishes and delivered a superb performance overall, to put Lyon back in the mix for Champions League qualification.
THE STAT: 3
Romain Faivre became the third player this season to score for two different clubs after already notching seven times for Brest before his January move to the Groupama Stadium. Andy Delort (Montpellier & Nice) and Gaëtan Laborde (Montpellier & Rennes) had already achieved this feat.
