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The Lyon juggernaut continued on Sunday, as the champions came from behind to beat Rennes 3-1 thanks to their inspirational Brazilian Juninho Pernambucano.
Gérard Houllier’s side looked in danger of suffering their first defeat of the campaign before a brilliant long-range shot from Juninho drew them level in the second half. Juninho’s free kick then prompted a second goal for Tiago before Sylvain Wiltord completed the victory late on.
The result ensures that Lyon remain four points clear of second-placed Paris Saint-Germain.
Lyon were forced to reshuffle at the back with regular full backs Anthony Réveillère and Jérémy Berthod suspended and Eric Abidal and Lamine Diatta injured. That meant a start for youngster François Clerc, while in attack John Carew was rested giving Fred a chance to lead the line.
Rennes, who had drawn their last two Ligue 1 outings, were without their injured skipper Cyril Jeanechamp, but could count on the goalscoring instincts of their Swiss striker Alex Frei who partnered John Utaka up front. The home side started on the front foot, with Utaka crossing for Olivier Monterrubio on seven minutes, only for the Frenchman to slice his shot wide.
It was an early warning to the Lyon backline, but they did not heed it. Four minutes later, Kim Källström latched onto a misunderstanding between Tiago and Cris and unleashed an unstoppable left-foot volley past Grégory Coupet and into the net from 20 yards.
Lyon seemed to be feeling the affects of their midweek jaunt in Norway and Rennes almost doubled the mark through their lively Swede minutes later. Former Lens striker Utaka escaped down the flanked and his low shot was met by the left boot of Källström but, with Coupet beaten, the ball skated wide.
Lyon slowly came into the game and started asking questions of the Rennes defence. Wiltord, returning to the Stade de la Route de Lorient, escaped in the penalty area on 21 minutes but his cross was too strong for Fred, then Tiago tried his luck for distance without any success.
As the half-time break approached, the visitors upped the tempo and twice went close to drawing level, first with a header from Fred which cleared the Rennes crossbar, then when Florent Malouda found space in the penalty area before completed miscuing his shot.
Coupet kept out a fizzing shot from Yohan Gourcuff shortly after the interval, as Rennes looked to score the second goal that might have signalled the end of Lyon’s unbeaten start to the season.
As it was, the visitors drew level through a stunning Juninho goal in the 53rd minute. After looking up some 30 yards out, the Brazilian curled a sumptuous shot over Andreas Isaksson and into the top corner.
Lyon were soon in the ascendancy, Isaksson reacting well to keep out a long-range effort from Mahamdou Diarra.
But the second goal duly arrived in the 74th minute, again following an inspiration from Juninho. This time his free kick was parried by Isaksson and, as the Rennes defence looked on, Tiago sneaked in to head home.
Monterrubio thought he had equalised four minutes before the end, but his goal was controversially chalked out for offside. Then Rennes’ misery was confounded, as Wiltord stroked a shot into the empty net after a misunderstanding in the home defence.
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