Depay scores hat trick in Lyon debut

The 23-year-old Depay joined Lyon in January 2017 from Manchester United and is finding his feet in France now that Lyon have sold Alexandre Lacazette to Arsenal.


The wins puts Lyon in fourth on 19 points from 10 games, six behind leaders Paris Saint Germain, who play at Marseille in Sunday’s late game. PSG are three points clear of second-placed Monaco, who beat Caen 2-0 on Saturday with Ligue 1’s leading scorer Radamel Falcao netting a penalty for his 13th goal of the campaign.

Depay’s goals came from a near-post tap-in, a shot into the top corner and after winning a penalty he insisted, at length with fellow striker Mariano, on taking the spot-kick, which he converted with a cheeky chip down the middle as the keeper went left.

Mali’s Bertrand Traore opened the scoring on 21 minutes with former Real Madrid man Mariano rounding off the scoring at the death. Earlier Sunday the injured Mario Balotelli watched from the stands as Nice slumped to another defeat, going down 2-1 at home to Strasbourg.

The Italian striker, scorer of five league goals this season, was absent with a calf injury and without him Lucien Favre’s team went down to their third successive league defeat and a fourth straight loss in all competitions.