Aiglon of the Match

Balotelli, King of the Derby

Without a shadow of a doubt, Mario Balotelli is your Aiglon of the Match for  Monaco – Nice (2-2). Loyal to his reputation, the Italian held his own up against the power of giants. In picking up 88% of the vote, it left just crumbs for Wylan Cyprien (5%) and Allan Saint-Maximin (2%).

If he can speak to every fan of the beautiful game, it’s surely because everybody sees in him as the player that they would have dreamed of becoming. Talented, monstrous, insolent, irritable, irritating and above all that, capable of changing a game on his own. In terms of yesterday’s derby, everything could have been written with teamwork and accuracy. May the squad forgive these couple of lines, but whilst he is playing like this, the “bomber” is leaving very little place under the sun. Including when it may be hidden by the dark and the wind. 

At the Louis-II, Super Mario made his return to the starting 11 and gave the idea that he had never actually been gone (his last start was back on 17 December, against Bordeaux). He tried from distance and showed himself to be at ease in his passing and movements, to warm-up. 

Fought with the opposition defenders and moaned at the referee, to get himself going. 

What was meant to happen, happened shortly after the break: he scored his first goal of 2018 by "getting the better of" Kamil Glik and throwing himself at the ball and turning it into the back of the net.  

Shortly after, he won his duel with Raggi, before earning his brace to give the Gym the lead. 

A big match from a big player, in short...  

3 stats on Mario...

→ He has scored at least two goals in the same Ligue 1 match for the 6th time in his career, the first time since 9 September 2017 against… Monaco (2 goals). With 6 goals on the clock (3 braces in 4 games), ASM have become his favourite team to play against in the top five European leagues.
→ He has found the back of the net during each of his last five starts in Ligue 1, his best run in the top 5 European Leagues since October-December 2011 (5).
→ He has now scored 27 goals in Ligue 1 with Nice (38 matches), meaning his joint best total for one club in the league (on a par with AC Milan, but in 63 matches). He has scored 35 goals for Nice all competitions included (51 matches), more than with AC Milan (33), Manchester City (30), Inter (28) and Liverpool (4).
 
Against Monaco, you also chose to underline the impressive performance of Wylan Cyprien. Although he hadn’t started a match in L1 for 10 months, the midfielder took just a half to fully get going in the derby, before he set the tone in the second period. With 93 touches, (and 92% pass completion), he was the Niçois who saw most of the ball on their neighbour’s turf. Proof that time doesn’t cancel out influence.

Finally, Allan Saint-Maximin completes your trio. After an excellent battle with Jorge, he perfectly set-up Mario for the equaliser, after having left the Brazilian in his tracks. His 5th assist of the season in the league, coupled with a solid performance on his right wing.

C.D.