Sylvain Wiltord was Lyon's savior (Allsport)

BORDEAUX, Aug 20 (SW) - A controversial header near the end of the match gave Lyon a 2-1 victory over title rivals Bordeaux in Ligue 1 action on Sunday night, propelling Lyon joint-top of the table.

Lyon, playing without the injured strike duo of John Carew and Hatem Ben Arfa, fell victim to a Bordeaux set piece after just five minutes when Julien Faubert put his head to Johan Micoud's free kick to make it 1-0.

It was Faubert's second goal of the week after scoring the late winner for France in their friendly against Bosnia-Herzegovina, his first-ever goal for Les Bleus.

Juninho nearly equalized seven minutes later for Lyon on a free kick of his own, but the deflected shot just barely missed the target, and the ensuing corner amounted to nothing.

Lyon controlled the ball from that moment onward and were rewarded with an equalizer in the 28th minute as playmaker Tiago hit a 20-yard shot that took a deflection off of striker Fred, sending Bordeaux goalkeeper Ulrich Ramé the wrong way.

Bordeaux failed to create any good scoring chances for the rest of the half, and had to have felt good about their chances for a win at the Chaban-Delmas going into the interval.

However, it was Bordeaux who very nearly took the lead on 65 minutes as Micoud had a shot nicely stopped by Grégory Coupet, and three minutes later Marouane Chamakh fired just off-target after a Bordeaux corner kick.

Gérard Houllier then had a part in winning the game by putting both Kim Källström and Sylvain Wiltord in the match in the second half, and both combined to put Lyon into the lead five minutes from time.

The Swedish midfielder hit a superb cross from the left that Wiltord was able to head on goal, past Ramé and into the net for a 2-1 lead, although the Bordeaux players claimed Wiltord was in an off-side position.