OGC Nice secured a 2-1 victory on their home ground last night against Troyes. A win that temporarily allows the Eagles to reclaim third place in the league.
Technical inaccuracies and other approximations ultimately did not prevent Nice from winning last night. At the end of a scrappy match, the Gym won and gained valuable points in the race for Europe. With Saint-Etienne being held in Angers, Nice find themselves in 3rd place pending the matches of Rennes and Lyon today. However, Claude Puel’s men were not particularly reassuring.
The opposition offered by Troyes was not exactly fierce. Yet, OGC Nice had all the difficulties in the world scoring two goals, one more than their evening’s opponent, in essence. Germain put his team on the right path as early as the 12th minute of play with a superb cross from Jérémy Pied. Forgotten by the defense, Germain did not benefit as much from slackness as Corentin Jean on the other side, who equalized for Troyes in the 26th minute.
Infiltrating the area, Jean took advantage of Cardinale’s overly pronounced anticipation to feint a cross and slide the ball into the net between the Nice goalkeeper and his post. Uninspired, in the absence of Ben Arfa, who was left on the bench at kickoff, the players from Nice remained at that until halftime.
The start of the second half was not much more glorious. Nice’s attack, symbolized by the failures of Germain, who hit the post, and the apathy of Plea, who still couldn’t find the solution. Eventually replaced by Ben Arfa, Plea offered a lackluster performance, akin to his missed match against Bastia the previous week.
Even Ben Arfa didn’t turn the game around upon his appearance on the pitch. Not collective enough, the Nice playmaker missed nearly all of his incursion attempts. Ultimately, it was the combative Mahamane Traoré who took advantage of a cross from Ricardo deflected by Germain (yes, him again) to give the Gym victory. 3 important points but a content far from delighting the 13,000 spectators who came to Allianz. With such performances, OGC Nice will struggle to attract more people…
Photo credit and more information on www.ogcnice.com
