On a great night for the club, he was the orchestra conductor, the one that set the tempo for his team. The excellent Mika Seri scored his first goal of the season (from outside the box, like three of his four top-flight goals), to ensure Nice emerged victorious from this summit clash. Named Les Aiglon’s Man of the Match, the Côte d’Ivoire international looked at back at the match, happy, but not getting carried away...

Mika, was this Nice’s best performance of the season so far?
Overall, I think it was a very good match on our part. But I think we have also played well in other games this term. If we got the result we wanted against Lyon, it’s in large part because we made a good start. They also received a red card early on and that made things easier for us.

The team appears more and more comfortable with his formation and three at the back...
It’s not one formation or another that makes the difference, but the players. If you put in the effort, both in defence and in attack, there’s no reason why it doesn’t pay off. On Friday, we were rewarded for our efforts with the victory.

Do you remember that match a couple of months ago at Parc OL when you didn’t get the win despite leading by a goal against ten men from Lyon?
The difference between today and that last game at Lyon was that we watched them play back then. On Friday, we attacked them from the get-go, we never let them get comfortable and play their game. We dominated the match.

What do you think about Le Gym sitting top of the standings?
The standings don’t matter too match. We saw last season that if you lose or draw a game, the others catch up very quickly. We are leading and that’s great for the confidence. Above and beyond the standings, the most important thing is to maintain this rhythm and keep playing well.

Aside from you goal, did you feel good, despite returning late from international duty?
I felt the opposite of the last break, this time I felt really good. I don’t know why, but I felt physically in top shape. My goal? It all bodes well. I have to stay positive, keep working and not think about all the other stuff.

And now it’s time to focus on Salzburg!
We need to recover well and start focusing on Thursday’s match which is very important. We need to focus and keep working so that the good results continue. But we have to work well on our recovery too, because it’s going to be a very tough game in Austria.

F.H.

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