Reinvigorated Alexandre Lacazette on par with Kylian Mbappé in Ligue 1

O ne could be forgiven for having doubts when Alexandre Lacazette returned to Lyon at the start of the season. Some players have done well since returning to Ligue 1 after spells abroad – Steve Mandanda and Wissam Ben Yedder are probably the best recent examples – but many others have not, with Laurent Koscielny, Morgan Schneiderlin, Yohan Cabaye turning in disappointing displays.

With Corentin Tolisso also joining, and Dejan Lovren arriving mid-season, the deal for Lacazette looked like a ploy to win over disgruntled fans who were pining for the days when the club reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2020. Tolisso has slowly improved during the season, having struggled with the same injury issues that plagued his time at Bayern Munich, but Lacazette has been an unqualified success.

Lacazette scored 17 goals in his last two seasons for Arsenal – a total he had eclipsed before Lyon took on in-form Montpellier on Sunday. He has been nipping at the heels of Kylian Mbappé in the Ligue 1 scoring charts, even if Lyon’s fortunes have been slower to improve. The visit of Montpellier, though, gave Lyon a golden chance to continue what has been a steadily impressive turnaround in the second half of the season. European qualification, once a pipe dream, remained tantalisingly close, especially with the potential for sixth place to be sufficient to reach the Europa Conference League if Milan, whose owners are also in charge of Coupe de France winners Toulouse, qualify for Europe.

Lille and Rennes, their primary competition for those places, had already lost by the time Laurent Blanc’s side set foot on the pitch. It would be no easy task, though – Castello Lukeba and Tolisso were suspended for Lyon and, even though the