Olympique Lyon’s Maxwel Cornet (left) and Stoppila Sunzu of Lille vie for the ball during the French Ligue 1 in Lyon. (Reuters)

AFP/Paris


Lyon missed an opportunity to make up ground on French league leaders Paris Saint-Germain as they were held to a frustrating 0-0 draw by Lille yesterday.
Lyon returned to domestic duty without Nabil Fekir after the France international ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in his country’s 1-0 win over Portugal last week. Lille entered the weekend with just one goal scored through their first four matches under new coach Herve Renard but Junior Tallo and Adama Soumaoro forced home goalkeeper Anthony Lopes into two smart saves in quick succession.
Mathieu Valbuena then came agonisingly close to netting his first Lyon goal since joining from Dinamo Moscow last month when his free-kick from 30 yards smacked back off the crossbar minutes before the interval.
Hubert Fournier’s hosts ramped up the pressure after the break but couldn’t find a way past Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. A slick passing move on the edge of the visitors’ box found Valbuena in space on the right but his goalbound effort was tipped over by the Nigerian international.
Another Valbuena free-kick nearly resulted in the breakthrough Lyon craved but Rafael da Silva’s glancing header bounced back off the inside of the post with Enyeama well beaten. Lyon continued their furious assault on the Lille goal right until the finish as Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa saw a header tipped over by Enyeama that preserved a fourth clean sheet in five for the northerners.
A nightmare evening for PSG goalkeeper Kevin Trapp ended the French champions’ perfect start to the season on Friday.
Laurent Blanc’s men twice led through goals from Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani but an own goal from Trapp followed by another mistake from the German allowed Wahbi Khazri to earn Bordeaux a precious point.
PSG had looked set to make it five straight Ligue 1 wins to start the campaign thanks to an Edinson Cavani first-half brace either side of Henri Saivet’s equaliser.
However, German goalkeeper Trapp, who had already been at fault at the first goal, was caught in possession in the box by Wahbi Khazri with 11 minutes left, allowing the Bordeaux player to snatch a point for his side.
It was a sweet result for the visitors, who had been forced to take the metro earlier in the day when their bus broke down and were reduced to 10 men shortly before their second goal when skipper Saivet was sent off.
And the result denied PSG what would have been a record-equalling 14th successive win in France’s top flight. Ironically, that record is still held by the 2009 Bordeaux side coached by current Paris boss Blanc, and Les Girondins were the last team to take anything from the capital club in the league back in March.