Three days after their 2-0 championship victory on Stéphanoise soil, the Gym will hold their breath before facing Reims in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France. Fourteen years after their last win in this competition, the Aiglons have once again a fabulous fate at their feet. Tonight, facing a Reims team eager to reconnect with the past, the Niçois will need to show that they have the fighting spirit to write a new chapter in their history … Alea Jacta Est
Different context, different era. In the spring of 1997, OGC Nice, at the bottom of the league, had lost the battle for the championship months ago… The hell of D2 had become a certainty.
The only ray of sunshine, the Coupe de France seemed to smile on the Niçois who reached the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France after a home victory against Gueugnon (2-0).
Against them, the amateur team Clermont Foot had just eliminated PSG 4-3 on penalties after a crazy match where the Auvergnats, after being down 4-1 with 20 minutes to go, miraculously came back before qualifying.
All of France, via its media, was then expecting another Clermont victory against Nice. That was without counting on the grit, the determination, and the desire to prove the naysayers wrong, which pushed the Gym to another victory in overtime in this cup.
Today, the club has yet to secure its place in L1 and remains potentially in danger, but its chances of survival are much higher than those of their predecessors in 1997.
The often mentioned link with this bittersweet period is not perfect, and that’s for the better. Everyone can then dream of a final victory coupled with a new season among the elite.
Facing a hyper-excited Reims team both among their supporters and within the club, ever since the draw “offered” them Nice in the quarter-finals, the Aiglons are not the favorites in the predictions nor in national media, which sees Reims’ qualification as a formality….
An opponent’s euphoria, historically OGC Nice is more comfortable in play when lurking in the shadows. The Gym remains the wounded beast to be taken down…. Cup examples are telling without being a general rule, but a certain consistency emerges regarding Nice’s chances of advancing a cup round while the vox populi sees the Red and Black club falling.
Within the walls of the Auguste Delaune stadium, the pressure is nonetheless enormous, a region in turmoil and a glorious past glimpsed for a Stade de Reims seeking a second wind.
Like their 1997 companions, the Niçois will need to deploy values of combativeness, conquest, and willpower on the field for a competition that must hold a special place in their hearts.
On the supporters’ side, despite a gloomy climate due to various disputed repressions targeting the ultras, it is time for mobilization, evoking memories of past exploits and hoping for better days. With the feeling of eating humble pie, the fans want to believe, the memory of the Stade de France, but also the elimination against Vannes in the League Cup semi-final in 2009 are still vivid…. Two games away from a potential final, it is a city that appears asleep but is ready to make its comeback in style. With fear and passion, a bitter taste of contexts mingled with the pride of the result. The near future will tell.
The die is almost cast, there’s nothing left but to hope.
