St Etienne 1-0 Lyon

Alexander Soderlund struck a late winner as St Etienne returned to form with a hard-fought win over bitter rivals Lyon at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Sunday night.Christophe Galtier's men went into the game on a run of just one win from their last five Ligue 1 games and still smarting from last weekend's disappointing 2-1 loss at Nancy.But they held out for a valuable win over a Lyon side whose own supporters were denied the right to travel to the game due to previous problems involving the two sets of fans.It was a fine response from St Etienne, who started the game better and came close in the early stages when Fabien Lemoine flashed a shot just wide of target.Jean-Christophe Bahebeck also forced a save from Lyon keeper Anthony Lopes inside the opening 10 minutes but Lyon began to settle and had their first chance on the quarter-hour mark when Rachid Ghezzal's shot was saved.Ghezzal continued to cause problems and with the visitors beginning to take control they came close to an opener in the 25th minute when Maxime Gonalons headed just wide from a Clement Grenier cross.St Etienne's Stephane Ruffier remained the busier of the two keepers, and he had to be alert again just before the break when he got down well to save a low shot from Alexandre Lacazette.Ghezzal and Grenier called Ruffier into action either side of the interval as St Etienne continued to struggle to make much of an impression on their opponents.Gonalons could have done better with a 66th-minute header from Ghezzal's cross and it began to look like Lyon might be made to pay for their series of missed chances.Soderlund served up a warning of what was to come in the 70th minute when he dragged a shot wide after being given a chance by Benjamin Corgnet's headed through-ball.And two minutes after Gonalons had missed another chance for Lyon, the home side pounced with Soderlund striking home from the middle of the box after superb work by Kevin Monnet-Paquet.Lyon responded well, with Corentin Tolisso just missing with a header then Ghezzal stretching Ruffier with a shot from outside the box.But it was Monnet-Paquet who had the last chance to change the scoreline when he flashed a long shot wide before Galtier's men were able to celebrate clinging for an important win.ends