This could have been a match between the lower-ranked teams, but it will ultimately be a great fixture, with the fifth in the championship hosting the seventh. This Le Mans-Nice encounter, the fourth of its kind, could well allow the winner to reach the top spots in Ligue 1. With two wins and one draw, the statistics favor Rudy Garcia’s men, but Frédéric Antonetti’s red and black squad will fight without any complexes to capitalize on their last stunning victory against Saint Etienne (3-0).
With a qualification in hand for the round of 16 in the Coupe de la Ligue, Le Mans and Nice, having defeated Laval and Troyes respectively on their home ground by the same score (0-1), are therefore preparing for a showdown where the three points remain the final goal, even if the eaglets could likely settle for bringing back just one point to the Azurean land before hosting Metz.
On the Le Mans side, only French hopeful international Mamadou Samassa and Brazilian Paulo André are expected to miss out. Everything seems to be in place, therefore, for a scenario favoring the MUC 72 team, who, after experiencing a significant dip in the last days of August with three consecutive defeats at Monaco (3-1), at home against PSG (0-2), then at Lyon (3-2), have made a good comeback by defeating Valenciennes at home (2-0) before winning at Strasbourg (0-1).
Moral seems to have returned in the Le Mans camp, which nonetheless held the top of the Ligue 1 championship for 3 days. The same morale is present among the Nice team, who, apart from the setback against Auxerre (2-0), seem to be in a state of grace since their surprising victory at the Vélodrome against Olympique de Marseille (0-2).
A match that should therefore live up to all its promises by pitting two surprising teams of this 2007/2008 edition of Ligue 1 against each other.
