This one was a slow burner, with the opening quarter of an hour a cagey affair, with some strong, physical challenges going in all over the pitch.
However, Nice only needed one chance to take the lead, and it was a clinical finish from Elye Wahi on 18 minutes as he turned home a first-time finish from Jonathan Clauss’ pinpoint delivery from the right. Lyon responded well, and Kail Boudache stung the palms of Yehvann Diouf with a fierce strike.
While the Nice stopper was able to deal with that one well, he could not repeat the feat in the 32nd minute. Johan Duranville cut in off the left and hit a low strike that Diouf ought to have done better with but, instead, he spilled at the feet of Pavel Sulc who finished cleverly to equalise.
Paulo Fonseca’s men weren’t finished there either and, just four minutes later, they had flipped the game on its head and their second goal came via the head of Tanner Tessmann. The American midfielder rose high to power home a superb cross from Zachary Athekame, which gave his side a lead that they held going into half-time.
The first real chance of the second half came seven minutes in from another dangerous Clauss delivery. This time, captain Axel Witsel met his corner with a powerful header that rattled the crossbar.
Olivier Pantaloni’s men continued to press for an equaliser, with Mohamed Amoura and Gauthier Hein unable to trouble Remy Descamps, but Lyon suffered a blow on 70 minutes when Keito Nakamura - who had been on the pitch for less than 10 minutes - caught Mohamed Abdelmonem with a high boot and was shown a straight red card.
Les Aiglons almost capitalised straight away through Wahi, but the woodwork came to Lyon’s rescue again as his header came back off the post. Nice continued to push right to the end and Wahi thought he had a stoppage-time equaliser, but his wild celebrations were cut short by the narrowest of offside calls.
That means his side’s mini resurgence ended at two wins, and they remain in 13th, while Lyon are one of four teams at the top on 14 points, but their superior goal difference sees them go top having won a fifth game out of their last six against the men from the Cote d’Azur.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Zachary Athekame (Lyon)