Winner (2-0) against Rennes, Nice had a sixth match in a row without conceding a goal. Leaders in a third of the championship, the Aiglons are no longer hiding.
After 11 days, the leader of Ligue 1 is not called Paris, nor Marseille or even Lens, but Nice. The Riviera club, still undefeated and best defense of the five major European championships (only 4 goals conceded), retained the first place acquired last week, by winning against Rennes (2-0), Sunday November 5. A surprising success for the 9th of the previous season, but it is not a simple heat stroke.
Since the arrival this summer of its young Italian coach, Francesco Farioli (34 years old), OGC Nice has established itself as a cold killer, winning most of its matches by a goal and scoring several times in at the very end of the match, like in Monaco, against another team for the start of the season. His Aiglons do not need to feast to be at the top of the championship. “We are not a team of dreamers, we are a team of workers”assumed the coach at the microphone of Prime Video.
Farioli has already managed to give an identity to this team which was sorely lacking in recent seasons. “OWe work with him every week, he tries to instill his values in us”confirmed midfielder Khéphren Thuram on Prime Video. These are based above all on foolproof defensive rigor. As proof, Nice remains in six matches without a goal conceded, its last outing without clean sheet dating back to September 15, during the 3-2 victory in Paris. This impermeability makes Nice one of the last four teams in the European top 5 still undefeated, with Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. And the only one to have never been behind.
Half as many goals scored as Paris or Monaco, but…
Sunday against Rennes, this solidity embodied by the veteran Dante (40 years old) was not even undermined by the expulsion of the midfielder Youssouf Ndayishimiye (75th). At ten, the Gym, perfectly aligned and coordinated in their pressing, stood round but did not bend. Better, he even doubled the lead by striking against it, obtaining and transforming a direct free kick with the help of Steve Mandanda’s back (88th).
This second goal constitutes, moreover, a certain curiosity, since Nice had until then only won once by more than a goal, against Strasbourg (2-0) at the beginning of September. Unaccustomed to offensive fireworks, the Aiglons only scored 11 times, a score much lower than their two closest pursuers, Paris (26) and Monaco (25). Rather than stacking the pawns, they know how to strike at the appropriate times. Scored just before half-time (45th), Jérémie Boga’s goal plunged Rennes into doubt on Sunday.
Will the Ineos project finally take off?
Not really waiting, nor cowering in its camp, Nice is far from the cliché of the defensive team, braced in front of its surface. Le Gym, on the contrary, likes to handle the ball (53% possession on average and up to 68% in Metz). “We cannot go at 1,000 miles an hour (…) We need patience and see when the door opens, because there is only a fraction of a second before it does not close”detailed Farioli in The Team end of October.
The appointment of this young coach, who had only coached in Turkey, aroused curiosity this summer. It illustrated the resizing of the Ineos project, started in 2019 and formerly embodied by a few expensive recruits and announcement effects with great fanfare, but never materialized by qualification for the Champions League. “This year, there is a place to be taken at the top of the ranking”, confirmed winger Jérémie Boga. Four French teams will participate in the C1 next year and Nice has everything to join the party, while other contenders like Marseille, Lens, Lyon or Rennes are lagging behind.