Clinical Lyon beat Marseille to cement third place

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Lyon celebrate after the match REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

PARIS (Reuters) - Olympique Lyonnais cemented third place in Ligue 1 with a 2-0 home win against Olympique de Marseille on Sunday.

Nabil Fekir and Mariano Diaz struck each side of the interval to put OL on 38 points from 18 games, three points ahead of fourth-placed Marseille.

Monaco are second, above Lyon on goal difference, after they thrashed St Etienne 4-0 away on Friday.

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Lyon's Anthony Lopes in action with Marseille's Florian Thauvin REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

Paris St Germain are the runaway leaders with 47 points following their 4-1 win at Rennes on Saturday.

Lyon took the lead after just six minutes when Steve Mandanda failed to handle Fekir’s 35-metre free kick as the hosts got off to a dream start.

Marseille had lost only one of their last 15 away games in Ligue 1, and they still dominated with Valere Germain coming close on two occasions.

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Marseille's Morgan Sanson in action REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

The hosts, however, held them off until the interval and could feel lucky they had a one-goal advantage at the Groupama stadium as they only had one shot on target.

Lyon keeper Anthony Lopes was instrumental in his team’s performance as he produced several first-class stops.

Mandanda also made a super save but parried the ball into the path of Benjamin Cornet who crossed for Diaz, the Dominican doubling Lyon’s tally six minutes into the second half.

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Lyon's Nabil Fekir celebrates scoring their first goal with team mates REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

The Provence side now lead fifth-placed Nantes by five points.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Lyon fans wave flags before the match REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Lyon goalkeeping coach Joel Bats and Anthony Lopes celebrate after the match REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Lyon celebrate after the match REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot

Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Olympique Lyonnais vs Olympique de Marseille - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 17, 2017 Olympique Lyonnais fans before the match REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot