Nice found its old habits and won against Metz by the minimum (1-0), on a penalty from Evann Guessand, but following a match controlled from start to finish, late Saturday after -noon at the Allianz Riviera.
With this sixth consecutive home victory in L1, Nice, which now has 38 points, continues its road towards Europe. Francesco Farioli’s men thus return to five points behind Paris Saint-Germain, and are four steps ahead of Brest, who travel… to Paris on Sunday evening, before hosting Nice on the 20th day.
If this victory was completely logical, it took shape gradually over the course of the meeting. And it was not until the 77th minute that Guessand, on a penalty, validated the domination (66% possession and 9 shots on target to 1). On an opening from Gaëtan Laborde, Guessand in the fight with Fali Candé is slightly hooked by the latter and the referee Stéphanie Frappart did not hesitate to indicate the penalty point (76th).
Subsequently, the Gym mastered its opponent, without dominating as much as in the first period, where, with almost 70% possession, Dante and his team were on target six times without deceiving an excellent Alexandre Oukidja, author of eight saves on the encounter.
First, the Algerian international goalkeeper released a good attempt from Gaëtan Laborde (6th). Then he was very good on a header from Khéphren Thuram following Nice’s first corner of the match (40th). Thuram, for his first start in almost two months, was often inspired. His swaying slalom in the Moselle defense could have deserved better. But his shot was blocked by Fali Candé (43rd). In the process, Morgan Sanson was also countered.
Half-time saw the two teams return to the locker room with a goalless score after the referee’s decision to cancel his decision to whistle a penalty after a foul by Oukidja on Evann Guessand (11th), due to an off -preliminary play by Mohamed-Ali Cho. We therefore had to wait for the combined entries of Alexis Claude-Maurice and Sofiane Diop (65th) for the Aiglons to push even more and for Guessand to end up delivering his own.
