Lyon defeats St. Etienne with 10-men

Lyon overcame the dismissal of Mouhamadou Dabo to beat St Etienne and climb up to third in the Ligue 1 standings.

Dabo saw red early in the second half, minutes after coming off the bench, but late goals from Jimmy Briand and Yoann Gourcuff spared Les Gones' blushes at Stade Gerland.

Lyon lie six points behind leaders Paris St Germain, who beat Caen tonight.

St Etienne made the brighter start and should have gone in front after eight minutes, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck the post with his effort from an unmarked position.

The home side took time to settle but had the chance to take the lead after 34 minutes through Bafetimbi Gomis, who found himself on the end of a cross from Alexandre Lacazette but put his volley wide from six yards out.

Gourcuff also curled a free-kick narrowly over the bar a minute before the interval as Lyon ended the first half strongly.

Dabo was introduced after the restart as a replacement for Aly Cissokho, but the right-back had only been on the pitch for six minutes when a dangerous challenge on Nicolita sent him back to the dressing room on a red card.

Lyon refused to let their heads drop, and after Briand had forced a good save from visiting goalkeeper Stephane Ruffier, the midfielder opened the scoring with nine minutes remaining, heading in a corner from Gourcuff which took a helpful deflection from ASSE defender Albin Ebondo.

The visitors responded two minutes later with a diving header from Aubameyang which needed an excellent save from Hugo Lloris to keep it out of the bottom corner.

And Lyon made certain of the points in the final minute, with Gourcuff swooping on a poor clearance from Paulao before despatching the ball beyond the reach of Ruffier.