In a Ligue 1 rivalry that was marred by a 45-minute stoppage after an assistant referee was rendered unconscious by a missile hurled from the crowd, Saint-Etienne defeated fierce rivals Lyon 2-1 on Sunday. Despite finishing second from the bottom, Saint-Etienne is only a goal difference away from possible safety.
Lyon dropped to sixth place. Earlier in the day, Lille and Nice, two of their competitors for Champions League spots, triumphed.
The Lyon midfielder was taken out on a stretcher after Lucas Stassin gave the home team the lead in the tenth minute and then avoided a red card for a foul on Corentin Tolisso.
Saint-Etienne were leading 1-0 when play was interrupted in the 45th minute.
Linesman Mehdi Rahmouni bent over and clutched his head on the touchline as visitors Lyon were about to take a throw at the Geoffrey-Guichard Stadium in Saint-Etienne.
Referee Francois Letexier ordered the players off.
After 35 minutes, Noel Mannino, the league’s matchday representative, announced play would resume after Rahmouni had said he was not injured but only dazed and had taken a paracetamol tablet.
Mannino declared, “We are going to restart the game because the assistant referee feels up to it.”
It was forbidden for Lyon supporters to travel to the match between the fierce rivals. As the teams returned, the stadium was still packed, with an announced attendance of 40,372.
Play resumed once Rahmouni had retrieved his dropped flag.
According to sources close to Saint-Etienne, “operations to identify the person who threw the projectile began within a minute of the incident,” AFP reported.
After sixty-seven minutes, Stassin’s swerving drive doubled the lead. In the 76th minute, American Tanner Tessmann responded, but Saint-Etienne held out to cause its erratic supporters to celebrate wildly.
The incident occurred a few days after the Ministry of the Interior and the French Football Federation announced plans to take action to safeguard match officials at all levels of the game.
The surface was still covered in smoke from the stands prior to kickoff, despite Saint-Etienne being threatened with closing both ends of the stadium due to recent “massive use of pyrotechnic devices and verbal abuse.”
