<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Lionel Messi struck after five minutes as Paris Saint-Germain edged Lyon 1-0 to regain top spot in the Ligue 1 table ahead of Marseille on Sunday.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Neymar set up the Argentinian with his seventh assist in eight Ligue 1 games.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The victory pulled PSG two points clear of Marseille who had taken top spot earlier with a 1-1 draw at home against Rennes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lorient, 3-1 winners over Auxerre, are three points adrift of the leaders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lens dropped to fourth after being held to a goalless draw in Nantes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"PSG played a great game tonight, against a difficult team which was waiting for us," said PSG coach Christophe Galtier.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We scored a good goal and could have scored others.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We were much more balanced, Neymar in particular gave us a balance which was really necessary. Even if we were less mobile in the second half we still had a lot of chances."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">PSG were imperious in the first half but did not finish off their opponent who woke up after the break with Johann Lepenant coming on in place of a tired Corentin Tolisso.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Galtier's side held on to inflict Lyon's third defeat of the season.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Galtier's "MNM" attack is firing on all cylinders, with eight goals in Ligue 1 for Neymar, seven for Kylian Mbappe and four for Messi.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier, Marseille midfielder Matteo Guendouzi scored both goals in a 1-1 draw at home against Rennes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Guendouzi bundled past home keeper Pau Lopez to give Rennes the advantage after 26 minutes but the former Arsenal player redeemed himself with a header past ex-Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda seven minutes after the break.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mandanda returned to a warm welcome for his first match back at the Velodrome where the former Marseille skipper spent 15 years before leaving for Brittany in the summer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was very good, very calm, while it was very difficult for him emotionally," said Rennes coach Bruno Genesio of Mandanda who holds the record for the number of games played for Marseille with 613.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nice fell 1-0 at home against Angers in a match in which defender Jean-Clair Todibo earned a red card after five seconds and both teams finished with 10 men.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Todibo was sent off after just nine seconds, and that includes the four seconds it took referee Bastien Dechepy to pull the card out of his pocket.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sofiane Boufal kicked off for Angers and passed to Adrien Hunou. He found striker Abdallah Sima surging forward. Sima pushed the ball past Todibo who stuck out a leg and tripped the striker.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a video review, the decision that Todibo was the last defender stood.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even though Boufal was later sent off, Angers won 1-0 with Nabil Bentaleb scoring just before the break.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I don't think it was a red card," said Nice coach Lucien Favre saying Dante and Jordan Lotomba were covering. "It was not a scoring opportunity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We would have won this game if we had played with eleven players."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'Killed the game' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was also red card controversy in Reims who fell 3-0 to Monaco with defender Bradley Locko sent off after 22 minutes for leaving a boot in on Breel Embolo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The referee killed the game," lamented Reims coach Oscar Garcia, and "it's not the first time".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Club president Jean-Pierre Caillot has been also suspended until December 31 for criticising the refereeing in a draw against Lyon last month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a punishing game in Brittany, Ajaccio got their first win of the season 1-0 at Brest in a match where two players were stretched off.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seconds after kick-off, Ajaccio goalkeeper Benjamin Leroy caught a team-mate's knee head-on as he tried to catch a ball.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There was a loss of consciousness, he was hit in the neck," said Corsican coach Olivier Pantaloni.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An aerial duel also floored Noah Fadiga after half an hour, leaving the defender stunned in a head-to-head clash with Ismael Diallo.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 22-year-old Brest player also left the pitch on a stretcher, giving the thumbs up to try to reassure the fans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ajaccio got their first success of the season thanks to Romain Hamouma's 65th-minute goal, to leave the Corsicans only one point behind Brest and Strasbourg.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Elsewhere Troyes won 3-1 at Clermont to move up to 10th after two defeats in a row. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>