PARIS (AP) — Amine Gouiri scored with a Panenka penalty kick and delivered an assist on Sunday as Nice moved back to second place in the French league standings with a 2-0 win at Metz.

The result extended Nice’s winning run to five league matches and lifted the team to within eight points of leader Paris Saint-Germain. Nice has a two-point lead over third-place Marseille, which won 2-0 at Lens on Saturday.

PSG later hosted Reims at the Parc des Princes.

The 21-year-old Gouiri started the match in place of striker Andy Delort — who was ruled out shortly before kickoff due to illness — and delivered an outstanding performance.

Metz goalkeeper Marc-Aurele Caillard kept the hosts afloat in the first half as Gouiri tested him several times. The French forward finally found a breakthrough in the 58th minute with a clever lofted ball over the defense for Khephren Thuram, who broke the dealock from close range.

Gouiri, a France U21 international, thought he had doubled Nice’s lead in the 76th but his effort from Evann Guessand’s assist was ruled out for offside.

Nice was awarded a soft penalty with five minutes left after slight contact between Guessand and Vincent Pajot. Gouiri tried the audacious chipped kick and beat Caillard for his 10th goal this season, although the goalkeeper got a hand to the ball but could not stop it from crossing the line.

Gouiri joined Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe as the only players under the age of 23 to have scored at least 10 goals and registered 5 or more assists in one of Europe’s top five leagues this season.

Metz stood 17th, just one point above the relegation zone.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports