If we believe the statistics of recent years, it’s the draw that should be marked on the sports lottery grid since the last three encounters ended in a sharing of points (1-1, 2-2, and 1-1). You have to go back to the 2005/2006 season to see a victory for the Girondins on Nice soil (0-1). There’s some reason for optimism on the Nice side, which saw the arrival of two new recruits in Danijel Luboja from Grenoble and Abdou Traoré, freshly loaned from… Bordeaux! A good piece of news for Nice’s attack with the arrival of an experienced player eager to quickly find the back of the net. On the Bordeaux side, the post-Laurent Blanc era is being built around Jean Tigana, but results are not quite there—though the victory in Paris and the hard-fought draw against an Olympique de Marseille reduced to ten have somewhat lifted the spirits of the Bordeaux team.
There will also be a return of former Nice player Anthony Modeste, who will tread the Ray stadium turf for the first time in his new colors, with a goal-scoring track already open since the last matchday with the equalizer against OM. Twice a starter and once a substitute, the young forward is eager to confirm his 20 goals from last year at Angers. The Nice defense will have to stay alert against an opponent they know well.
In case of a victory against Bordeaux, the Nice team could settle in the upper part of the table before heading to Sochaux (18/09), hosting Rennes (25/09), and traveling to Paris (02/10), with, in the meantime, a perilous trip to Saint-Etienne (22/09) to face the Greens in the round of 16 of the 2010/2011 League Cup. It’s all the good fortune we wish for this red and black squad, which wasn’t necessarily expected to be in this position after four matches and could be even better ranked if luck hadn’t turned against the Eagles at home against Nancy (1-1) and away in Lille (1-1).
