Bordeaux captain Benoit Costil said South Korea’s Hwang Ui-jo is the “bee’s knees” after the forward scored his second goal in four Ligue 1 appearances in yesterday’s 2-0 victory over Nantes. Hwang, 27, who joined the French club from Gamba Osaka for 2mn euros ($2.2mn) in July, claimed his third goal of the league campaign as Bordeaux moved up to sixth in the table.
“His settling in time has been minimal. He’s very efficient. What he’s been doing has been the bee’s knees,” Costil said. “I prefer to have Hwang with us rather than against us,” he added.
Coach Paulo Sousa also praised the 29-time international who set up Francois Kamano for the opening goal of the game with a precise pass with the outside of his foot. “Hwang is starting to understand his positioning and has better communication with his teammates,” the Portuguese boss said. “With every match he’s starting to be decisive, to show his physical ability. He’s an important type of player for us,” he added.
Elsewhere Patrick Vieira’s Nice won for the first time in six games denying Reims the chance to move to second in the table with a 2-0 victory. Wylan Cyprien and Christophe Herelle scored after Mali international Moussa Doumbia was sent off in the first half for the visitors. Later two struggling sides were meeting as Saint-Etienne host Monaco.
On Saturday, Memphis Depay’s last-gasp goal earned a recovering Olympique Lyonnais a 3-2 victory at Toulouse. Lyon twice came from behind, Depay and Moussa Dembele cancelling out Yaya Sanogo’s goal and keeper Anthony Lopes’s own goal, and Depay got the winning strike five minutes into extra time to lift them to eighth on 16 points from 12 games. Under new coach Rudi Garcia, OL have picked up seven points in three league games since he took over three weeks ago. Angers got a 1-0 home win against Racing Strasbourg thanks to a penalty from Stephane Bahoken and moved up to second on 20 points, seven behind Paris St Germain who were beaten 2-1 at lowly Dijon on Friday.
Lille missed out on second place when they lost 2-1 at Olympique de Marseille, who went up to fourth on 19 points. Lille are one point adrift. In Toulouse, Sanogo put the hosts ahead in the 15th minute with a volley from close range but Dutch striker Depay levelled 11 minutes later with a low shot. The visitors fell behind again shortly before the hour when Lopes deflected a cross into his own net with his shoulder. Dembele equalised after collecting a bell-shaped cross from Jeff Reine-Adelaide and when it seemed OL would miss out on an away win for the fifth game in a row, Depay gave them all three points with another low shot.
Meanwhile, also on Saturday, Marseille took advantage of two comical defensive mix-ups to secure a 2-1 win at home to Lilleand alleviated some of the pressure on coach Andre Villas-Boas.  Defending champions PSG suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of Dijon, who started the weekend at the foot of the table, on Friday with coach Thomas Tuchel accusing his expensively-assembled team of “being too passive and not playing together”.
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