LYON - Monaco's troubles continued on Saturday as they slipped to their fifth defeat on the trot at Ligue 1 leaders Lyon.
A perfect penalty by Juninho broke the deadlock on 11 minutes before Anthony Reveillere doubled Lyon's lead six minutes later.
Sylvain Monsoreau pulled one back for the Monagesques just before the break, but five minutes into the second half Karim Benzema confirmed his position as the league's top scorer with his 11th goal in as many games.
Both sides came out fighting, but it was Lyon who took the lead after Jeremy Berthod fouled Sidney Govou. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and Juninho fired the ball home, sending keeper Flavio Roma the wrong way.
Juninho turned provider six minutes later with a perfect pass to Reveillere, whose angled shot cleverly deceived Roma.
Monaco almost got one back on 38 minutes when Jeremy Menez's deflected pass fell to the feet of Jan Koller at the edge of the penalty area. But Lyon keeper Remy Vercoutre pulled off a magnificent save.
Three minutes later Monaco did manage to halve Lyon's advantage though. Monsoreau rose high at the near post to head in Kamel Meriem's free-kick.
Monaco came out in the second-half desperately seeking an equaliser but Benzema, fresh from scoring two goals in the international break, dashed their hopes.
The youngster forced his way through the Lyon defence and played a quick one-two with Govou before firing the ball home.
