Paul Coelho said, “Very often during our lives, we see our dreams shattered and our desires frustrated, but we must continue to dream, otherwise our soul dies.” Some fans in Nice or observers feel frustrated by this end of season. Having been in the top five for a long time, the Eagles have gradually slipped to the middle of the Ligue 1 table. Frédéric Antonetti’s men are now five points away from qualifying for the UEFA Cup and four points from the Intertoto Cup. There are six points left to be won. They will enter the Nungesser Stadium in Valenciennes to give everything and clinch the three points for a win. The goal: to ensure that the last home match against Caen does not count for nothing.
The words of the Nice coach published on the official website confirm this objective: “We are playing to possibly gain one or two places, which would still be valuable. We want to end the season well. I said a few months ago that finishing in the top eight would be satisfactory, we are 9th, we know what we need to do: we need to put in two good performances to finish this championship.”
Nothing will be easy in the North. Valenciennes is a team very comfortable at home. They are fifth with strong defense and especially excellent offensive efficiency thanks to the emblematic Steve Savidan who has scored 12 home goals. The players from the North are motivated for their last home match and hope to celebrate in front of their fans. Coach Antoine Kombouaré does not want any slackening from his troops: “We would like to finish with a very good note at home and of course, that would mean a victory against Nice. It would be good for the players but also to thank the fans for the wonderful support we’ve had throughout the season. The danger is to anticipate, to think about what will happen next. We need to focus, concentrate on the match because it’s going to be very complicated against a strong Nice team.”
The Valenciennes-Nice match looks to be evenly matched. Both teams will play without pressure. Valenciennes has the ambition to finish the championship as high as possible. Nice continues to dream and not to frustrate its desires.
