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As the final chapter of the 2018-19 Ligue 1 season came to a close on Friday, the team at OGC Nice.com offer you the chance to relive Les Aiglons’ season. The points picked up throughout the season, a comparison with previous seasons since the promotion in 2002, defense, attack... Here is the general appraisal of Le Gym’s season. 

Fourth best league finish since 2002 

The season got off to a slow start for Patrick Vieira’s side, but they were able to turn the tide with their trip to Lyon (Week 4, 0-1 victory). This was followed by a series of games which started to improve and find balance until the visit of Marseille (Week 10, 0-1 defeat).

Proof of this stability is that Les Aiglonsnever left the top 10 from Week 11 until the final game of the 2018-19 season. During the first half of the season, they bounced between 7th and 10th.

“To improve every season”, this was the objective set by Dante - Patrick Vieira’s most used player in 2018-19 (3,226 minutes played) - before Monaco’s visit to the Allianz Riviera (Week 38, 2-0 victory). 

In order to do so, Les Rouge et Noirneeded to achieve 7th place and pick up more than 54 points. They managed to do so, finishing in 7th with 56 points, their fourth best total since their return to the top flight.

The team from the most beautiful city in the world finished in the top half of the table for the fourth consecutive season, equalling their best ever run: between 1948-49 and 1951-52 (7th, 5th, then champions on two occasions in D1).

Second best defence in France 

A sign of their undoubtable efficiency at the back, Le Gym only conceded 35 goals in 38 games. Their best total since 2007-08 (30 goals conceded).

To this statistic, we can add the number of  clean sheets achieved by Le Gym (16), and more specifically the seemingly unbeatable Argentine keeper, Walter Benitez. Only Paris Saint-Germain kept more clean sheets this season (17). 

Best ratio for points to goals scored 

Les Aiglons admit it: They struggled in attack this season. Les Rouge et Noironly found the back of the net on 30 occasions this year. It’s the lowest return for the side since returning to the top flight (on a par with the 2013-14 season). 

But the main strength of Dante and co. was making the most of every goal scored. They won by 1-0 on nine occasions this campaign. That’s more than any other side playing in the top five European leagues!

OGC Nice becomes the first side to feature in the top 10 with only 30 goals scored. A ratio of 1.87 points per goal had previously never been achieved in L1.

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