OGC Nice and Nantes end in a draw after a dull and flavorless match. A habit for the red and black fans this season. Deprived of chances and entertainment, the spectators at the Allianz Riviera seem condemned to patiently await the end of the championship.
Before this match, nobody believed in the sudden awakening of a team that had been dormant for far too long. Last night, the facts proved the detractors right. Against a visiting team losing momentum, Nice never managed to make a difference. Worse, they could have even lost the match with the few opportunities from Nantes.
Without an awkward Audel for his return to his native region, Nice would never have taken a point. There was indeed that missed header from Cvitanich, alone in front of the goal, for the Gym but it was insufficient to hope for more. Claude Puel’s men are clearly stagnant even at home. Yet, to secure the remaining points for safety, they will need to win this kind of match.
Nantes, without being more flamboyant in play, showed much more danger upfront. Audel, Bangoura, and even Nkoudou posed problems for the Azurean defense. However, the absence of the Serbian striker, Djordjevic, weighed on Michel Der Zakarian’s whole group. A true finisher of the canaries’ actions, he might have allowed his team to return with all three points.
On the other hand, in Nice, the local striker Cvitanich is no longer mentally present at all. Unrecognizable in his attempts, the Argentine clearly has his mind elsewhere, which the shot he should have targeted is likely proof. A departure at the end of the season is more than ever on the agenda for the one who brought good days to the Gym last year. Such a state of form could encourage Claude Puel to more frequently line up the Bosetti-Maupay duo, with the former being the most noticeable and combative Nice player before his exit at the hour mark. It is in such encounters that this duo has the most to learn. Closed games where one must be able to make a difference with very few chances. For now, their performances are still indeed irregular due to their young age, but it’s up to Claude Puel to integrate them, as he knows so well, into his tactical plans to best prepare for the next season and the future of the club.
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