OGC Nice was defeated last night on their home turf against Paris-Saint-Germain (0-3). In their usual 3-5-2 formation since the victory against OL, Nice tried to play (a little) but succumbed to the will of the leader.
Complicated. Too much for Nice. What Paris wanted, Paris did, last night at the Allianz Riviera. Even though the first half-hour seemed balanced and even if Hatem Ben Arfa showed he had legs, Kevin Trapp was never troubled. On the other side, Cardinale also didn’t make any saves during the first 45 minutes. However, he conceded two goals without being able to do much about them.
Cavani scored the first in the 35th minute of play. Perfectly assisted by Ibrahimovic, who used his physique to hold onto the ball on the left side of the box, the Uruguayan just had to push it into the net. A real gift that El Matador did not forget and returned to his attacking teammate eight minutes later.
At the end of a sublime play, he played the ball to Ibra, alone in front of the empty goal. The Swede was fouled by Hult, who received a red card for the action. Zlatan, as he’s named, took charge of the penalty and gave PSG a two-goal lead.
Decided by halftime
Reduced to ten men and trailing by two goals against Paris, Nice headed to the locker room without much hope of achieving anything in the second half. “The expulsion basically put an end to this match,” explained a frustrated Claude Puel in the post-match press conference.
This impression was confirmed right at the start of the second half. The Parisians dominated and created numerous dangerous situations on Cardinale’s goal. Clearly, Nice had given up after paying dearly for their first-half mistakes.
In excellent form, rarely seen this season even though he has been performing well in recent weeks, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a brace. Perfectly set up with a through ball by Di Maria, the former Barcelona and Milan center-forward beat Cardinale with a powerful shot to the near post at the hour mark.
Nice need not be ashamed
“This match doesn’t count,” said Claude Puel, aware of the gulf between Paris and the others. Even though Nice loves the big teams in this championship. Even though there must be a team to finally beat PSG in the championship. Even though Paris had just come off their least convincing performance of the season at Angers and even though Ben Arfa made Blanc say he’s “an incredible game accelerator.”
Ultimately, after Angers, Paris once again showed the response of a top-level team. Not shaken but indeed stung by those 90 minutes spent without scoring at Jean Bouin. A quality Laurent Blanc appreciated: “We were very focused on setting things right.” On Nice’s side, they will have to quickly digest this defeat and refocus on the last two matches of the first half of the French championship. It will be at Reims next week and then against Montpellier.
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