Some will speak of anti-football, others will praise the pragmatism of OGC Nice. One thing is certain, the Gym will have frustrated PSG for a long time, this Saturday, on the occasion of the 11th day of Ligue 1. Organized in 5-4-1 with a five-man defense made up of Abdi, Bard, Bah, Oppong and Mendy, the Aiglons certainly offered absolutely nothing offensively, but will have found the necessary resources to block the Parisian offensives. Totally dominated during this meeting (nearly 80% of ball possession for PSG), the Riviera club spent its time defending.
An airtight defense
It was enough to look at the statistics at the break to illustrate the influence of the Ile-de-France region: after 45 minutes, Vitinha could boast of having touched the ball 89 times when the entire Nice squad had only made friends with the ball 96 times… Withdrawn in their last twenty meters, Franck Haise’s men, however, showed rigor at (almost) all the time. Deprived of DĂ©sirĂ© DouĂ©, injured, and Ousmane DembĂ©lĂ©, out of form, PSG struggled for a long time with the Nice rearguard and with the inspired YĂ©hvann Diouf (57th, 68th, 90+4th).
Too tender, Bradley Barcola was still clumsy (14th, 39th) when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, despite a significant activity, did not manage to do well in the game. In a rather unprecedented role of false number 9, Senny Mayulu struggled to exist against the forest of Riviera legs. Hanging on for a long time, PSG finally waited for their 28th shot of the evening, the work of Gonçalo Ramos, to exult. A perfect scenario for the Portuguese, who celebrated his 100th in the Parisian jersey, but also for PSG, guaranteed to end this day at the top of the standings.
Diouf delayed the deadline for a long time
Disappointed, the people of Nice could only regret the outcome of this game. “Obviously disgusted, it plays out at 20 seconds. Not even, because I don’t think they even make the commitment when the referee blows the whistle. So, yeah, disgusted. We have several good matches. We must not stop at this defeat against Paris. It’s a game in the season. This is not what will define it. Now, we are going to have two important matches (against Fribourg, in the Europa League, then at Metz, in the championship), next week. There, we will try to digest the defeat, to understand and review the goal we conceded. And then we have to move forward, we have no choice”analyzed Yehvann Diouf at the microphone of BeIN Sports.
Architect of this hermetic collective – more than attractive – Franck Haise also regretted the final result. “We know that it can happen, in sport, there are moments of joy and crueler moments, we knew that Paris was superior, we didn’t need to see this match to know that, we defended for a long time and to take this goal with five seconds to go, it’s sure it’s hard to swallow, but nevertheless we’re going to have to do it”initially noted the Nice technician before expanding on the areas for improvement for his team.
The bitter observation of Franck Haise
“There are two or three clear situations where we could have made one more pass to really open things up. We managed to release a few balls, of course I would like more control, more goal situations, but we are taking it step by step. We have encountered a lot of strong opponents recently, we are not looking to struggle in mastery against these teams, but to have a little more precision to steal Paris more regularly, that would have been better”.
And to conclude: “we must not lose our strong value today which is to make the effort, to be well organized. We must not be mistaken. We have to improve in certain areas, but we must not forget what allows us to get back in the game a little.”. Winner of its last two trips to the Parc des Princes (3-2 then 3-1), OGC Nice has, of course, long believed to strike another nice blow in Parisian lands. That was without counting on Gonçalo Ramos, executioner of the Aiglons’ almost perfect plan.
