OGC Nice coach Lucien Favre was delighted with the way his team played for more than an hour in their 3-2 win over Troyes on Sunday. Lucien Favre wants to build on this for the rest of the league campaign.

Coach, it was a very good first hour of play and unfortunately you still managed to give yourself a scare at the end.

I didn't think we were going to sweat like that on the bench until the end today. We had a few scares. The positive thing is that we won for the first time at home since the beginning of the season. It was time. Indeed, the first 60-65 minutes were not bad.

How do you explain the end of the game? Did the substitutes not bring what was needed?

They struggled, that's true. It's not easy to come on like that. The team is leading 3-0, you think it's going to continue like that. And that's not the case. They make it 3-1, and then it changes a lot of things. There are players who have played 90 minutes and who have already played 90 minutes in Slovacko. They were tired. We must not forget to say that when you play on Thursday and Sunday, you lack a bit of energy, especially if you play 90 minutes.

Nicolas Pepe scored a goal and caused the penalty. Is it his best game?

Yes, yes, it's his best game. I was happy to see him dribble, to go back on his left foot as he usually does. He still had chances, it didn't always work out, but that's what I'm interested in, scoring goals and also creating chances. Honestly, it wasn't bad. 

He's getting in behind.

Yes, it's important to go deep, very very important.

You mentioned Slovacko. Did the substitutes slip up today, despite the context and the possible fatigue?

It's difficult to assess that. It's also psychological, it's hard to come back. You go on at 3-0, I think they went in with the idea of making it 4-0. And then, in the end, the opposite happened, it was 3-1. All of a sudden, you start to question yourself, and that's it. Then they made it 3-2. It was close. There were signs of fatigue. You have to recognise that.

We are aware that it's tough at the moment without Mario Lemina.

He put in a good performance, he knows how to spread the ball around. Sometimes he slows things down, sometimes he speeds things up, sometimes he even goes alone. As soon as he has to come off, it does make a difference.

Can you give us some news about Youcef Atal, explain why he came off? And can you explain why Aaron Ramsey wasn't on the team sheet?

It's just because Aaron Ramsey had a little bit of pain in his hamstring the day before yesterday. It was better not to risk it, rather than it lasting a number of weeks. It was better that he didn't play. For Atal, it's the hamstring from what I saw in the dressing room. It's the hamstring again. But he came off straight away, at least he didn't pull it. He already had it three weeks-a month ago. It didn't last long. I hope it won't last long now, because he is important for us.

Talking about the style of play, does what you saw this afternoon resemble what you want to see from your team, this style of play that you want to impose on this squad, especially in the attacking department?

Yes, we need movement, we need to get in behind and then we need, let's be clear, percussion, power. Otherwise, it's difficult to turn teams around without that. We played well, we played well, we could have scored one or two more goals in the first half. The positive thing for me is that it was a good 65 minutes.

Andy Delort was inspired with his back to goal. He helped you a lot.

I don't want to point out the individual aspects. I think that as a team, it was pretty good.

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