Lyon

French match abandoned after fans invade the pitch twice, go after opposing team

Published Apr. 16, 2017 3:10 p.m. ET

Caitlin Murray

A Ligue 1 match has been abandoned after Bastia fans invaded the pitch two separate times to go after Lyon players.

The match was initially delayed by an hour because fans invaded the pitch during warm-ups and swarmed Lyon players. Then at halftime Bastia fans did it again and the match was called off entirely.

Video from the match shows just how chaotic the scenes were during warm-ups:

https://twitter.com/GFFN/status/853625261199380480

Ligue 1 officials said they would investigate what happened and asked Bastia to ban the fans responsible.

"The French league is asking Bastia to take all necessary measures in order to issue stadium bans against those responsible for these acts," the league said in a statement. "And more generally to take all measures required to guarantee security."

The first pitch invasion happened about 15 minutes before warmups were supposed to finish at Armand Cesari stadium when members of the Bastia 1905 supporters group invaded the field and jostled with Lyon players, including Memphis Depay and Mathieu Gorgelin.

Fans disrupted the proceedings again at halftime as players were leaving the pitch for the locker rooms. Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes was calmly walking off the field when he was confronted by a man --Lopes pushed him back as clashes erupted between home fans and Lyon players.

It was the second time this week that a Lyon match was interrupted by fan violence. Lyon faces sanctions from UEFA after crowd disorder delayed its Europa League home quarterfinal against Besiktas midweek.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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