In the world of overachieving surprise packages this game has a sort of ‘pupil becoming the master’ feel about it. Whereas last season Nice were the team on everybody’s lips, Nantes have picked up the mantle. The Brittany side spent Christmas and New Year in seventh place; top of the Brittany mini-league and seven places ahead of their south-coast opponents.
Les Canaris have benefitted from having a number of players all performing at the top of their game, and leading the line is Filip Djordjevic. The big Serb has cracked in eight league goals already this season and assisted three more. Slightly worryingly, he hasn’t scored since November and his goal drought really has to be ended soon. His contract is up at the end of the year and his performances haven’t gone unnoticed across Europe with plenty of clubs hovering. He’s recently decided that he won’t be leaving in January, but if he doesn’t up his game soon he might find himself surprisingly short on suitors come the summer.
His team didn’t end the calendar year too well either, with consecutive league defeats. Had they maintained their early season form they could have found themselves in the top four, but given what some people were predicting back in August nothing should detract from their wonderful achievement so far.
Meanwhile, how Claude Puel must be wishing he could rewind and start this season over. Last season Nice finished fourth, edging out both Saint-Etienne and Lille in what was a truly remarkable season for the club. This term hasn’t been too kind to Les Aiglons, and now avoiding relegation is the order of the day as opposed to another charge up the table.
It hardly started well with the club being knocked out of the Europa League qualifying by Apollon Limassol 2-1 on aggregate. In an exact polar opposite of fortunes, Nice finished off 2013 with two consecutive victories which has certainly helped their league position but success this season will be largely dependant on how they do in the domestic cups. Dario Cvitanich has scored just one goal fewer than Djordjevic but in comparison to his exploits of last season, he’s yet to really impose himself on Nice’s campaign.
In a strange coincidence this fixture is being repeated ten days later in the Coupe de la Ligue, and then a exactly a month later in the league itself, so these two will be getting to know each other very well in early 2014. It isn’t hard to work out which team will prioritise which fixtures.