Ligue 1: Rony Lopes nets dramatic late winner to help 10-men Monaco to comeback victory over Lyon

Paris: Rony Lopes struck a dramatic late winner as Monaco recovered from two goals down and overcame the first-half dismissal of Keita Balde to stun Lyon 3-2 in Ligue 1 on Sunday. Mariano Diaz scored a 12th-minute opener for Lyon at the Stade Louis II as his deflected shot from distance deceived Monaco goalkeeper Danijel Subasic, who hobbled off injured after tangling with the net. Lyon doubled their lead before the half-hour as Bertrand Traore, making his first league start since early November, volleyed in at the near post past replacement keeper Seydou Sy. [caption id=“attachment_4335861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Monaco’s Rony Lopes celebrates scoring the winner against Lyon. Reuters[/caption] But Senegal international Balde held off a succession of defenders before rifling in a low angled drive to halve the deficit just three minutes later. Radamel Falcao then equalised on 36 minutes when he converted the rebound after seeing his penalty, awarded for a foul on Kamil Glik, saved initially by Anthony Lopes. It took the Colombian to 17 league goals for the season — trailing only Paris Saint-Germain duo Edinson Cavani (21) and Neymar (18). But Monaco were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half-time as Balde, booked moments earlier for kicking away the ball in frustration, was shown a second yellow card for a nasty foul on Ferland Mendy. The hosts then lost captain Falcao to a thigh injury 10 minutes into the second half, but it was his replacement Stevan Jovetic who set up Portugal international Lopes for the winning goal a minute from time. Lyon conceded possession cheaply inside their own half, and the Montenegrin striker rolled the ball into the path of Lopes who drilled into the far corner to complete a sensational turnaround and help avenge last month’s 3-2 loss in the French Cup. ‘We stopped playing’ “It was a very tough match. We conceded two goals far too early, we lost two players to injury and had a man sent off, everything was against us,” Lopes said. “But we showed we are a strong team and we deserved to win on the basis of the second half. It’s our best match in terms of solidarity, but not in quality. We showed that we’re a real team.” The result bumped Monaco up to third, one point behind Marseille, while Lyon finished the weekend a point outside the Champions League places in fourth after dropping from second. “It was a sin not to have won tonight,” Lyon coach Bruno Genesio said. “Even worse to lose after the way we started. We had a really good start but then we practically stopped playing when we were 2-0 ahead.” Earlier, Claudio Ranieri’s Nantes slumped to a 3-2 defeat at Caen as Damien Da Silva scored twice for the hosts, including an 80th-minute winner, after Yacine Bammou had grabbed a brace for the Canaries. Yeni Ngbakoto’s stoppage-time goal at Roazhon Park edged Guingamp to a 1-0 victory at Rennes. A superb Neymar free-kick helped PSG to a 3-0 win at troubled Lille on Saturday as the Ligue 1 leaders began a decisive month as they mean to go on. The world’s most expensive player netted the second goal at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy after Yuri Berchiche had opened the scoring just prior to half-time. Giovani Lo Celso’s delightful chip secured the victory late on, with PSG now 11 points clear of Marseille at the top of the table. Marseille climbed to second on Friday as Florian Thauvin tormented Metz by hitting a hat-trick in a 6-3 rout of the league’s basement side.