After being pegged back twice by sloppy goals, Nice dug deep in the last few minutes of the game to earn a deserved win.

'Who will stop Nice?' ran L'Equipe's headline eight days ago. Though the clocks will soon be turned back ahead of winter, there's still no response. After getting themselves back into the game twice, Metz believed that they could bring the leader down. They were not counting on an incredible reaction of a squad that surprises and impresses a little more each weekend.

For this trip to Lorraine, less than 72 hours after their European outing, Lucien Favre had to cope with a slightly crowded treatment room. With Dalbert and Paul Baysse injured in Austria and Mario Balotelli left out due to a painful adductor, the Swiss coach decided to change his formation: out went the 3-5-2, in came a 4-2-3-1. How would the team adapt to this system which had already been used right at the start of the season? Very well, thank you very much.

They quickly opened the scoring thanks to some great play by Jean Michael Seri, who spotted the run of Alassane Plea in behind the Metz centre-back pair of Guido Milan and Simon Falette. The Nice striker's cross-shot did his team-mate's wonderful pass justice as the visitors took a 12th-minute lead.

Rocked, Metz were just a few centimetres from being two down when Wylan Cyprien's powerful shot smashed off the crossbar with goalkeeper Didillon rooted to the spot (0-1, 12'). With more than 70% possession and three times as many touches as their opponents with just 20 minutes gone, the visitors were suffocating their hosts. Metz, though, kept themselves alive, thanks largely to Didillon's reflex save after Cyprien had turned a Rémi Walter corner goalwards (21').

Seemingly comfortable, Nice and their goalkeeper, Yoan Cardinale, were caught out when Mevlut Erding's shot was parried by the latter and Georges Mandjeck followed up to fire home the rebound (1-1, 25').

But the strength, in fact one of the strengths, of the team this season is to never let their heads drop, and this game was a perfect illustration of that. A dozen minutes later, the Red-and-Blacks went ahead again thanks to a penalty won by Younès Belhanda, who was excellent this evening. Plea, with a powerfully-struck penalty and a little good fortune, put his team back ahead (1-2, 38'). Seri, on the line at a corner, helped out his goalkeeper by clearing to preserve the lead at the break (43').

One foul committed in 90 minutes

After the re-start, Nice's neat triangles worked delightfully, and they brought the ball out from the back cleanly. With one or two touches, no sign of panic, which is borne out by this rare stat: they conceded just one foul in the whole game! Nonetheless, they still had just a single goal advantage, and just as in the first half, Metz showed a ruthless streak in scoring from one of their rare opportunites. Habib Diallo had only been on the pitch 20 seconds when he latched onto an Erding flick, squeezed between Dante and Malang Sarr and fired past Cardinale to equalise (2-2, 70').

There were still 20 minutes to play, which was enough for Nice to regroup and move forward again. And create several chances. Seri produced another wonderful ball for Plea, who did not strike his shot cleanly and allowed Didillon to win their one-on-one duel (83'). Annoying? Perhaps, but the altruism and hunger of the number 14 would be rewarded. Less than 60 seconds later, Plea made another dangerous run behind the Metz defence, and was picked out by the other stand-out man of the night, Belhanda. Just like three days earlier, Plea gave his team victory by shooting through the goalkeeper's legs (2-3, 84'). After some great approach play by Walter, Cyprien's powerful shot in added time was the icing on the cake (2-4, 90+2').

Still leading the table, Nice have a remarkable record three months into the season: eight wins and two draws from the first ten league games!

Next step: Next Sunday at 15:00CET at the Allianz Riviera against FC Nantes.

A.D.

 

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