Lyon will take a two-goal cushion heading into the second leg of Champions League tie with Rubin Kazan, although the French side needed to fight back from an early deficit.
The Russian side enjoyed a dream start as Vladimir Dyadyun put them ahead after just three minutes at the Stade Gerland.
However, Les Gones were level seven minutes later through Bafetimbi Gomis, and an own goal from Solomon Kverkvelia just before half-time combined with Jimmy Briand's 71st-minute effort gave them a 3-1 victory.
Czech champions Viktoria Plzen are in an even better position after recording a 3-1 away win over a FC Copenhagen side who last term became the first Danish side to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League before losing to Chelsea in the last 16.
All the goals came in the second half, with an own goal from Solvi Ottesen putting Plzen ahead in the 52nd minute before Vaclav Pilar put the visitors 2-0 up seven minutes later.
Copenhagen pulled a goal back in the 69th minute when Ottesen made amends for his earlier own goal but Plzen restored their two-goal advantage within 10 minutes thanks to Martin Fillo.
FC Twente and Benfica shared a 2-2 draw in their first-leg tie.
Hosts Twente took the lead in the sixth minute through Luuk de Jong but Benfica, the European champions in 1961 and 1962, led 2-1 at half time thanks to goals from Oscar Rene Cardozo and Manuel Nolito.
That was not enough to earn the visitors a lead to take back to Portugal, though, the as Costa Rica forward Bryan Ruiz drew the Dutch outfit level 10 minutes from the end.
In last night's other fixture, BATE Borisov and Sturm Graz played out a 1-1 draw in Belarus.
Manuel Weber put visitors Sturm ahead in the 10th minute but Marko Simic levelled the scores up in the 59th minute.
