OGC Nice hosted AS Monaco this Sunday on the 6th Matchday of Ligue 1. Lucien Favre's men lost 1-0 to their neighbours.

Four days after the win in the north (1-2), the Gym hosted neighbours Monaco this Sunday looking to pick up their second win of the week to close out Matchday 6. They ultimately failed in their attempts, despite a good first half. Their opponents finished the game better and made the difference with a goal from Embolo in the 69th minute.

STATUS QUO IN THE FIRST HALF

There was only one change from the starting line-up away to Lille (Laborde instead of Rosario), as the Gym lined up in a 3-4-3 formation with the attacking trio of Pepe, Delort and Laborde. The tone was set early on in this heated derby. Delort first held off Malang Sarr to escape down the left. His dribble took him away from the goal, but he managed to find Nicolas Pepe, whose shot went wide (5'). Nice showed in the first half that they were ready to build on their success in midweek. They were strong in the duels and were winning the midfield battle for a while, with Aaron Ramsey finding his way through the middle of the pitch and picking out Delort, who diverted the ball to Laborde. The former Rennes player then set up Atal, but the Algerian defender saw his shot saved by Nübel (12'). 

In keeping with these good signs, Pepe took advantage of another Delort-Laborde exchange to try his luck, but failed to find the target (29'). The Gym were in the game and doing everything they could to stay in it. Youcef Atal left his teammates in the first half due to an injury. AS Monaco took advantage of this to get the ball rolling again and get a few attempts on goal (36', 39'). But Todibo, Dante and Viti, again lined up in a three-man defence, were able to find their feet and leave no space. Despite a strong end to the first half for the visitors, both teams went to the changing rooms goalless.

THE GYM LOSES ITS FOOTING

If the end of the first 45 minutes was positive for Monaco, the beginning of the second half turned in favour of the Aiglons, before losing their footing shortly after the hour mark. ASM took advantage of this. Golovin was first flagged offside after hitting the post (51'), then Fofana found the net with a shot (64'). The midfielder's goal was ruled out for offside, but the effort sent a shiver through the Allianz Riviera. Moments later, the VAR could do nothing to save the Gym. After a high recovery, Caio Henrique found Embolo in the Nice area, whose header hit the target (0-1, 69'). Groggy, the Gym could not get back into the game, despite the introductions of Rosario, Beka Beka and the first minutes in red and black for Bryan and Diop.

A beaten OGC Nice will have to bounce back this Thursday against Cologne at the Allianz Riviera for the start of the Europa Conference League.