Garde happy with hard-fought win

Lyon head coach Remi Garde said he was very satisfied after their 1-0 win over Montpellier in Ligue 1 on Saturday.

Bafetimbi Gomis got the only goal of the game for the hosts who now move five points clear at the top of the league.

However Garde admitted his side received a slice of luck to earn the win after enduring heavy pressure in the second half.

“I am very satisfied with the result. It was a complicated game and a hard-fought victory,” Garde said.

“We did control the first half. But in the second half Montpellier started to play more offensively and were more aggressive.

“We could not control the game as we did before. Montpellier were dangerous especially with shots from long range.

“But at the end we were able to keep our one goal lead and earn ourselves a valuable victory.”

Garde was particularly pleased with his side’s level of endeavour given they had defeated high-flying Marseille just three days before.

“I was a bit scared towards the end because as I said before, Montpellier were a different team in the second half,” he said.

“We could not keep the same level of intensity in the second half. We played a difficult match against Marseille just three days ago and I choose to keep the same team tonight.

“This was a risk and you could see we were a bit more tired from time to time. But we were still dangerous as per the three of four chances we had in the second half.”