The match: 1-0
Last two months ago, OL are provisionally in eleventh place in the ranking following their success at home against Nice (1-0) on Friday. A rise in the rankings with multiple ingredients: conquering mindset, effective recruits, change of system and even a touch of success. At Groupama Stadium, Mohamed-Ali Cho found the post (9th) and the referee forgot two penalties (Caleta-Car on Guessand in the first period then Tagliafico on Lotomba, 82nd). Anthony Lopes, under pressure from newcomer Lucas Perri, saved his team several times (5th, 20th, 85th, 86th…)
Convalescent, as we saw during last Sunday’s purge in Montpellier (2-1), OL still showed some nice things against the Aiglons. The Matic-Caqueret-Mangala midfield was quite attractive in its activity, its impact, its complementarity. The latter scored the only goal of the match, for his first start, found behind by the restless Ernest Nuamah (1-0, 22nd). The Ghanaian, narrowly caught by Melvin Bard (8th, 35th), forced Youssouf Ndayishimiye to take a warning (10th). Coming off the bench, Rayan Cherki missed the break goal, from too tight an angle (88th).
0/6
Nice is experiencing a series of six unsuccessful away matches in L1, scoring only one goal in these six matches.
The fact: Nice plays more but earns less
For weeks, OGC Nice was singled out for its lack of offensive inclinations and its cold realism. A game plan which brought the Aiglons to second place in the standings. But in recent weeks, Francesco Farioli’s men have been coming out a little more, playing faster.
We saw it in particular at the start of the match in Brest (0-0, February 4), during the magnificent derby against Monaco (2-3, Sunday) and again during the first twenty minutes at Groupama Stadium. This thunderous new start failed again and Nice were punished by OL’s only shot on target.
Le Gym, who touched twice as many balls in the opponent’s area as OL (32 against 16), took only 10 points in the last nine matches. He could even fall from the podium at the end of this 22nd day.