Alexandre Lacazette helped Lyon reduce the gap to the top four in France Ligue 1. He scored a brace to secure a win for his team.
Mathias Pereira saved a shot. It flew comfortably over the bar. There was nothing to separate this Europe-chasing duo in the opening quarter-hour.
But that all changed. VAR officials spotted a handball by Lacazette from a Brest corner. This led referee Benoît Millot to the monitor.
Brest where awarded the penalty which kenny Lala side footed into top right corner of the net to make it 14th career goal in all competitions for the club.
Lacazette later amends with a well timed run a shot into corner of Brest net after series of passes inside Brest box allowed Rayan Cherki make a nice pass to Lacazette.
Lyon were also fortunate to go in level at the break, with Abdullah Sima heading just over the bar. The game was thus finely poised. The first real chance of the second half fell to Lacazette. He made a promising run into the box. Pressure from two Brest defenders prevented him from firing the correct side of the near post from an angle.
Lyon after a dozen failed attempts seemed to lie with Sima. And his lung-bursting run down the left just prior to the hour mark was a warning,
A ball from Cherki on the right flank found its way into the box. Lacazette guided it for the home side to lead the game, making it the fourth match winner of the season.
The victory means that Lyon are now just four points off fourth-placed AS Monaco. Brest, meanwhile, had two penalty appeals for handball against Lyon turned down in injury time. They now trail their still sixth-placed hosts by a concerning six-point margin.