French Ligue 1: Caen ease fears with fightback

Caen struck twice in the last 10 minutes to stun Nantes and move six points clear of the drop zone in Ligue 1.

Alejandro Bedoya looked to have teed up a routine win for Nantes with an opportunist strike in the 11th minute, but substitutes Emiliano Sala and Thomas Lemar had other ideas in a dream finale for Caen boss Patrice Garande.

Sala struck from the penalty spot with 10 minutes left on the clock, while Lemar swept home a spectacular free kick in the dying moments to leave the hosts in a daze as Caen won 2-1.

The victory propels them up to 12th, just two points and as many places below Nantes, while also putting clear breathing room between them and the scrap for survival.

Nantes were looking for their third home win on the trot and it looked like that would be a formality after just 11 minutes.

Visiting defenders Damien Da Silva and Felipe Saad failed to deal with Olivier Veigneau's long throw, leaving Bedoya to sneak in just six yards out and lash the ball beyond a helpless Remy Vercoutre.

Serge Gakpe went close to adding a second for Les Canaris five minutes later but his powerful 25-yard effort was beaten away by Vercoutre before Caen had a penalty claim waved away after Sloan Privat appeared to be impeded by Oscar Vizcarrondo.

Caen continued to grow into the game as half-time approached and had another penalty shout denied when Papy Djilobodji made contact with Bengali-Fode Koita inside the area.

Privat then saw his first-time effort from Dennis Appiah's delivery come back off the left post with Nantes keeper Remy Riou well beaten.

The visitors were dominant in the second half and it almost paid off with 77 minutes played when Lemar, who said during the week Garande had challenged him to score more goals, saw off challenges from Veigneau and Gakpe before seeing his effort crash against the outside of the right post.

However, moments later, Les Canaris were granted a perfect opportunity to level the scores when referee Benoit Millot finally pointed at the spot after Julien Feret went down under a Johan Audel challenge.

Sala took responsibility for the spot-kick and smashed the ball straight down the middle from 12 yards, beating the diving Riou.

The visitors continued to press and got their reward in added time when Lemar's 40-yard free-kick evaded everybody, including Riou, before bouncing into the back of the net to hand Caen all three points.