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PA Sport

Feb 6, 2016, 10:18 AM ET

Monaco strengthened their grip on second place in Ligue 1 with a slender 1-0 win against Nice, despite playing almost half the game with 10 men.
Tiemoue Bakayoko's strike late on, his first for Monaco, was enough for Leonardo Jardim's side - who had Nabil Dirar sent off - to move six points clear of their third-placed visitors.
Monaco suffered a blow early on when Fabio Coentrao was forced off with an injury on 12 minutes but almost netted just after when Mario Pasalic escaped the visitors' defence only to be denied by a decent Yoan Cardinale save.
Nice were unlucky not to take the lead on 20 minutes when Vincent Koziello's audacious chip beat Danijel Subasic before coming back off the crossbar, before Vagner Love's wasteful finishing at the other end ensured a goalless first half.
The former CSKA Moscow forward inexplicably headed wide from three yards out - before doing exactly the same from Bernardo Silva's delivery as the half-time whistle approached.
No sooner had the second half begun and Monaco found themselves a man down when Nabil Dirar was shown two yellow cards in a matter of seconds for arguing with referee Tony Chapron.
Nice looked to take full advantage but Walter's effort from distance sailed over the bar following some good work from Valere Germain while Hatem Ben Arfa was thwarted by Subasic following a good run into the box.
Then, with less than 10 minutes left to play, Monaco struck against the run of play when Joao Moutinho's free-kick found the unmarked Bakayoko who headed beyond Cardinale.

POS	Team	GP	GD	PTS
1	Paris Saint-Germain	7	+5	14
2	AS Monaco	6	+5	14
3	Lille	6	+5	13
4	Stade Rennais	6	+2	13
5	Lyon	6	+7	11
6	Paris FC	6	+4	11
7	Toulouse	7	+1	9
8	Brest	6	+3	8
9	Lorient	6	0	8
10	Nice	6	-2	8
11	Lens	6	+1	7
12	Strasbourg	7	-3	7
13	Angers	6	-3	7
14	Marseille	6	+1	6
15	Le Mans	7	-5	6
16	AJ Auxerre	6	-8	6
17	Troyes	6	-9	4
18	Le Havre AC	6	-4	2

POS

Team

PTS

Lille

Lyon

Brest