Jean Bouin saw plenty
Three goals. None conceded. Paris FC were in no mood for subtlety on Sunday afternoon.
It all started with a foul by Youssouf Ndayishimiye on Ilan Kebbal in the box in the 18th minute. Penalty, booking, the lot. Lassine Sinayoko stepped up and buried it, right foot, into the left side netting. 1-0 on 21 minutes.
Nice did not fold straight away. Sofiane Diop tried one from range, but Kevin Trapp tipped it over. Nathan Ngoumou then missed the target after a Jonathan Clauss cross. The visitors had the ball right up to half-time, but never once looked like breaking through.
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Trapp shut the door
The second goal arrived six minutes after the restart. Kebbal picked out Samir Chergui in the middle of the box, and he drilled a right-foot finish into the bottom-right corner. 2-0 on 51 minutes.
At that point Nice finally came alive. Clauss bent one towards the top corner, Trapp clawed it away. Xavier Mandza tried from distance, Trapp was there again. Elye Wahi came on in the 63rd minute and met a Clauss cross with a header, only for Trapp to push it clear from point-blank range. Four saves for the German keeper, one for Yehvann Diouf at the other end.
The numbers tell a different story from the scoreline. Fifteen shots apiece. Four on target each. Nice even had more of the ball, with 54.5 percent possession, and sent in 22 crosses compared with just eight from the home side. None of it mattered.
Marchetti strikes in the 89th
Vincent Marchetti had come on six minutes earlier, replacing the injured Otavio. He latched on to a pass from Zabi Gueu in the middle of the box and curled a left-foot shot into the bottom-right corner. 3-0 on 89 minutes. Nice’s third forced change of the afternoon ended in a goal.
Pablo Pagis had already gone off injured in the 72nd minute, replaced by the same Zabi Gueu. Two fitness blowouts in the same quarter of an hour, and yet the two replacements were the ones who finished the job. Paris FC’s bench carried more weight than Nice’s, where Wahi, Isak Jansson and Antoine Mendy could do nothing to change the outcome.
Paris FC have four points from two matches and move top of the provisional table, pending Monaco-Marseille later tonight. Nice have just one point and sit 17th. The visitors had already spent the week dealing with a messy transfer window, with the Mohamed Amoura saga and the fear of late exits hanging over them. The pitch did them no favours.
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