Brest stuns Lens 4-0 to move away from relegation zone
PARIS (AP) - Brest earned a third straight win in the French league by stunning Lens 4-0 on Sunday to move away from the relegation zone.
Lens provisionally dropped to third place, 13 points behind leader Paris Saint-Germain.
Benin striker Steve Mounie opened the scoring in the third minute by heading home a deflected cross from Jeremy Le Douaron.
Brest captain Brendan Chardonnet doubled the lead in the 13th by diverting in a corner with his back.
Romain Faivre notched his fifth goal this season with a curling shot from the edge of the box to make it 3-0 in the 33rd.
Lens had several chances but lacked the finishing touch. An angled shot from Lens wing back Przemyslaw Frankowski was cleared off the line by Christophe Herelle in the 10th. Brest goalkeeper Marco Bizot then turned a low drive from Gael Kakuta around the post in the 25th. Ignatius Ganago in the 35th and Seko Fofana in the 48th also hit the post.
Le Douaron put the result beyond doubt in the 69th by holding off Kevin Danso to fire into the top corner.
Lens was down to 10 men in the 74th when substitute Arnaud Kalimuendo was sent off for a tackle from behind on Ronael Pierre-Gabriel.
Brest couldn't win any of its first 11 games this season but recently turned a corner, defeating Monaco and Lorient.
'œThat victory against Monaco did a lot of good for us,'ť Faivre told Amazon Prime Video. 'œWe feel the players are more confident. We play forward much more. We also have a defensive solidity, we are much more compact. There's a better balance.'ť
Also Sunday, Angers moved into sixth place by edging Lorient 1-0 with a penalty from Thomas Mangani in the 67th.
Strasbourg equalized with the last kick of the game in a 1-1 draw with Reims as substitute Jean-Ricner Bellegarde curled home a free kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time.
Saint-Etienne remained in the relegation zone despite beating Troyes 1-0 with a powerful long-range strike from Peru defender Miguel Trauco in the 61st.
Opa Nguette came off the bench and scored twice to help bottom side Metz rally from a 2-0 deficit and draw 3-3 with Bordeaux. Nguette capitalized on a corner to net from close range in the 52nd before scoring the equalizer with a looping header in the 71st. Metz midfielder Farid Boulaya was sent off in the 68th for a poor challenge on Yacine Adli.
The 14th round ends later Sunday with Clermont vs. Nice, and Lyon vs. Marseille.
On Saturday, Lionel Messi scored his first goal in the French league by leading PSG to a 3-1 win over Nantes. Rennes snatched second place by downing Montpellier 2-0.
On Friday, defending champion Lille drew 2-2 with Monaco to stay in the bottom half of the table.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports