In his press conference, the Nice coach recognised the difficulties his side faced in containing OM in the first half, but regretted the second goal which hurt his team so much, during one of their positive moments of the game.

Were you surprised by the intensity that OM were able to bring to this game?

They had already done that here recently, against Leipzig. They are able to do it at any given moment of the match. We knew it. We were prepared for a side that would give everything in the first half, knowing that they would have less energy after that. And that is what happened. We scored very quickly but we forgot that you need to continue after. For their equaliser, we didn’t defend very well as a team. In the second half, we were better, we played more, even if we didn’t really have a huge chance. But they didn’t either, except for their goal… We can only blame ourselves.

You said during the week that it would be a real challenge that you side would need to answer to. Are you disappointed by your side’s involvement?

It was delicate for us because Marseille brought huge rhythm. Yes, we struggled, it was tough. We needed more deep runs to be able get out with long balls when we were under pressure. It’s not always possible to play short passes as we like to do, especially when you have a team that presses high up the pitch. You need to have several strings to your bow.

That result punishes you in the league. How do you see the coming weeks?

First of all, I am disappointed by the second goal, because they really didn’t have much after the break. But that’s the way it is, we will need to analyse the 95 minutes. Now, we need to focus on Caen. It’s still possible to qualify, we will need to do all that we can to win. Caen are a team that have often caused Nice problems recently.

How were the players in the dressing room at the end of the game?

Disappointed because they realised what I have said to you here, that it was tough but we managed to get through the most difficult part of the game, and that we ended up conceding a goal when we had started to be better than them.

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