Lens hosted the return of the game that kicked off their season, although now Adrian Ursea has taken over as coach of Nice after previously acting as assistant to the sacked Patrick Vieira.
Ursea made two changes to the team that lost to Bordeaux, swapping out Stanley Nsoki and Khéphren Thuram for Robson Bambu and Pierre Lees-Melou in a 3-5-2 shape
Having had to travel down to the South coast in mid-week to beat Marseille rather than resting like Nice, Franck Haise did more to freshen up his side, bringing in Ismaël Boura, Clément Michelin, Yannick Cahuzac and Ignatius Ganago for Massadio Haïdara, Jonathan Clauss, Seko Fofana and Simon Banza. Lens returned to their usual 3-4-1-2 formation after experimenting with a 3-5-2 in recent matches.
Lens appeared to have the slightly better first half, but this was mainly because they were able to engage Nice higher up the pitch. One of the forwards would guide William Saliba in one direction by curving their run towards the other side, while the other would push up onto that side’s centre-back and Kakuta would get tight to Hicham Boudaoui. Once the ball headed wide, that side’s wing-back and midfielder would push up in support, cutting off the short options, and Lens would recover the ball.
They would also sometimes just go man-to-man on the back three, pushing Kakuta up alongside Florian Sotoca and Ganago, although this was more dangerous as it left Boudaoui free in midfield.
Nice instead dropped off and allowed Lens to pass out easier. Kasper Dolberg would then step out to pressure Steven Fortes, with Amine Gouiri staying back as the tip of a midfield diamond near Cheick Doucouré. Once Lens had picked a side to play down, Gouiri would step out to pressure that side’s outside centre-back, blocking the pass into Doucouré, while Dolberg stopped the pass back across to Fortes.
Aside from this, there was next to no interest in the game though. With both teams playing with a defensive line of five, half of the players on the field were defenders, so they ended up cancelling each other out and neither side offered much creativity.
Nice took the lead early in the second half, stealing the ball in the Lens half and spreading it wide to Youcef Atal. The Algerian smartly cut inside onto his left foot and finished from a tight angle, albeit injuring himself in the process.
From there Nice sat back to protect their lead. Haise made attacking changes, switching to a 4-3-3 shape by adding Arnaud Kalimuendo and Banza to Ganago in attack and bringing on Tony Mauricio and Fofana in midfield, however they struggled to break down a Nice side who pulled all their players back.
A back three can make for some interesting match-ups, but this was a good example of how when two meet one another they can make for boring games as the attackers are left outnumbered.
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