Preview - Nice vs Marseille 22 October 18

[Harry85]

Match Day 8
Nice vs Marseille
Monday, October 22nd, 2018
04:00am (GMT+8 Timing)
Stadium: Allianz Riviera

Nice:   
Last five matches form: W L W L D
Average goals per match: 0.78
Average goals against per match: 1.44
Top Scorer: Allan Saint-Maximin (2)

Marseille:
Last five matches form: W L W L W
Average goals per match: 2.33
Average goals against per match: 1.78
Top Scorer: Florian Thauvin (7)

Each of these sides are struggling for consistency at present, seeming to be incapable of following one good performance with another.

Marseille dominated this fixture last season, winning this game 4-2 and coming out on top 2-1 at the Vélodrome.

Both sides look to be just about fully fit headed into this game. Marseille are hit by suspensions though with both Luis Gustavo and Lucas Ocampos serving a ban.

Nice haven't been too bad at the back in general, although there is certainly room for improvement. It is in front of goal where their real problems lie having scored more than one goal only once in their past ten Ligue 1 games. That lack of threat will always put pressure on their defence to play well and they may be in for a stern examination here.

Only PSG have scored more goals than Marseille in Ligue 1 so far this season, with Florian Thauvin carrying on from where he left off last season with one excellent display after another.

Nice have lost four of their last five at home in Ligue 1.

Marseille aren't great on the road though having lost three of their last four, including a 3-0 humbling at the hands of Lille in their most recent away outing.

Be it home or away, Marseille do nearly always at least get on the scoresheet - have scored at least once in 11 of their last 13 away in Ligue 1 - and we fancy their edge in the attacking third to decide the destination of the points here.


Prediction: Nice 1 - 2 Marseille

[Harry85]

Half time: 0 - 1
Full time: 0 - 1
Shots:  11 - 6
Shots on target: 4 - 1
Corner Kicks: 5 - 7
Possession: 53% - 47%

Youctef Atal, Dante and Mario Balotelli were all booked for the home side. Nemanja Radonjic being the sole Marseille player to have his name taken by referee Amaury Delerue.

No Florian Thauvin for Marseille in this one with the star man being ruled out through injury. In truth his absence did tell at times with the side desperately missing his direct and creative play. A fact borne out by the stats with Marseille managing just the one shot on target in the game. In the end though that's all they needed as the defence held firm.

Nice were making most of the early running with Steve Mandanda making three stops before home keeper Walter Benitez had even dirtied his gloves. No way through though.

Then as half-time approached it was Marseille who took the lead in the 42nd minute. Bouna Sarr being played in down the right hand side and pulling the ball back to Morgan Sanson in the area. Sanson having time to control and pick his spot, firing into the bottom right from around 14 yards. 0-1 at the interval.

More of the same in the second half really as Marseille struggled to get anything going on the attacking side of the game. Nice weren't really up to much in that regard either though with the second 45 minutes offering very little in the way of clear-cut opportunities.

No doubt the most pleasing thing about this result for Marseille - other than then three points of course - will be the clean sheet for this defence which has been much maligned at times.

Marseille move back up into fourth spot in the standings with this win. Nice drop down to 14th at the end of Match Day 10.