The Expert: Nice show their fortitude, even minus Mario
If ever the Nice bubble was going to burst, then surely it was going to be here. Having succumbed to their first Ligue 1 defeat of the season at Caen just before the international break, it must have seemed like an interminable wait to get back on the horse - especially as Lucien Favre’s team had to keep their powder dry until the last game of the weekend, and their Sunday night visit to Saint Etienne, a game which they started in third place after both Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco won on Saturday and Friday respectively to leapfrog them.
Putting that right at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard was never a given. Nice had won here handsomely last September, securing a 4-1 win - a match that we’ll come back to in an instant - but Christophe Galtier’s side are a tough nut to crack. Despite occupying a relatively low ninth place at kick-off, and having had a fair deal of injuries to cope with to date, they were unbeaten at home in Ligue 1, and had conceded just four times in six matches on their own patch.
No more. Notwithstanding a glaring late miss by Sainté captain Loïc Perrin - from a very similar close-range position to the one that he scored his team’s goal in this fixture last season - this was one of the more comfortable single-goal victories you’ll see. Favre’s team dominated throughout and their superiority against one of the division’s most obdurate teams would have been fully ratified had Alessane Pléa not spurned a couple of clear chances in the second half, notably being denied by a superb Kevin Malcuit intervention on a breakaway.
So while this lacked the more spectacular elements of last season’s win here, Nice supporters may well be more satisfied with this result, as Favre and his players responded to the pressure of playing last with poise and authority. Responding to a journalist’s post-match question about whether the result had brought some calm back to the group, the coach was gently dismissive.
“There aren’t any reasons to not stay calm because we’ve lost twice (including the Europa League defeat to Salzburg),” said Favre. “You really have to put everything into perspective. It’s still football.” That sang froid was on display for all to see. It may be going too far to say that Nice played with the authority of champions, but they certainly exuded the assurance of a team that consider themselves to be worthy challengers.
Much has changed in the last 14 months. Last season’s win at Geoffroy-Guichard should always remain a landmark for Nice in the modern age. It was an outstanding performance by Claude Puel’s team, most remembered for Hatem Ben Arfa’s double strike - and in particular his astonishing second goal, when he slalomed past four Saint Etienne defenders before rifling home. Even casual football fans in France now knew that Nice were worth watching. They were entertainers.
Ben Arfa is no longer at the club, of course, but this latest win was a show of collective strength, with this year’s headliner Mario Balotelli suspended - he is not, it’s worth recalling, the club’s top scorer in Ligue 1; that’s Pléa, with seven, to Balotelli’s six. Set out in a 4-3-3, while the centrally-positioned Pléa, supported by Valentin Eysseric and Younes Belhanda; Nice controlled the game with a tidy precision. They had 65% of possession and 89% of those passes found their targets, as opposed to only 77% of those attempted by their hosts.
It was in stark contrast to last year’s win that, while spectacular, was a very different type of performance. Puel’s team had 51.4% of possession in that game despite running out as emphatic winners, and their tally of four came from a grand total of just eight efforts at goal. Les Aiglons are already a very different team under Favre, with great versatility, having morphed between three and four at the back. Yet their shape at Sainté was impeccable, as we can see from the player average position map, betraying no lack of practice.
Malcuit and Cheikh M’Bengué couldn’t make much progress in the wide areas, with Nice full-back Ricardo Pereira again outstanding, this time on the right, and rating as the game’s star man at 8.60. As the game hit its final strait, Galtier introduced trickery and pace, respectively, to the wide areas in the shape of Kevin Monnet-Pacquet and teenager Arnaud Nordin, but they managed just a single dribble between them, and no key passes. On the other side Ricardo managed five of his own, while also doing the defensive end of the job well, with two tackles, two interceptions and five clearances.
As a team, Nice were only required to make nine tackles, compared to Sainté’s 22. In last year’s game? They made 19 to Les Verts’ 18. On a weekend in which Nice responded to a new challenge with gusto, they also proved that they have evolved considerably, and they know it. The Ligue 1 leaders have every right to be classed as a genuine threat to Monaco’s and even to Paris Saint-Germain’s title hopes.
