After dominating for long periods and being held at bay by a heroic goalkeeper, Les Aiglons needed penalties to eliminate Corte (1-1 + 5-3 on pens.) on Saturday in the Coupe de France round of 32. Tanguy Ndombele scored Nice's only goal of the game.

Le Gym will be continuing their Coupe de France adventure. Faced with a valiant Corte side from the National 3 (D5), who had moved the game to the Stade Armand Cesari in Furiani for the occasion, Les Aiglons suffered for a long time against Jacques André Luciani, a goalkeeper playing the match of his life. Indeed, despite their sustained dominance, Les Rouge et Noir were held in check for much of the match by the Corte keeper, who was virtually unbeatable. Despite firing 30 shots, 17 of which were on target, and enjoying 76% of possession, Franck Haise's men only found the net once - through Tanguy Ndombele on the hour-mark (1-1, 60').

They then had to go through a painful penalty shoot-out, always dreaded by top-flight clubs when they face lower-division opposition in the Coupe de France. But in this match, Les Niçois did not waver, converting all five of their attempts. Jonathan Clauss, for example, was on hand to seal Le Gym's place in the next round just after Fabio Perotto's effort had crashed off the bar.

LUCIANI UNSTOPPABLE

All in all it was a long and winding road over 90 hotly contested minutes against a Corte side that showed the mettle to bridge the four-division gap between the sides. Le Gym were in the ascendancy early on, winning a penalty when Luciani brought down Ndombele in the penalty area, but they failed to take the lead. Sofiane Diop was the first to test Luciani, and he came off second-best as the home 'keeper guessed correctly and turned the spot-kick wide (4').

This was the first blow for Les Aiglons, followed by a second a few moments later. Off-centre on the right from 35 metres out, Fabio Perotto took a free-kick and flicked it onto the head of Christopher Boussemart, who scored with the Corsicans' first on-target shot of the match (1-0, 11').

Determined to respond and get past this setback, Les Rouge et Noir quickly regained control of the match. But Luciani was only getting stronger, clawing Clauss's shot away (15'), parrying Laborde's header (20') and then twice saving from the left boot of Nice's captain (23', 25')... And even when he wasn't making the saves himself, the 35-year-old keeper had the frame of the goal to help him out, notably with Yaël Nandjou's header from a corner (20').

Mired in a tough situation, Le Gym made things even more difficult for themselves when Nandjou was sent off for an dangerous tackle on Raphaël Menozzi, who was forced off injured and to whom OGC Nice wishes a speedy recovery (39th). Thus they had to play the remainder of the first half - and the entire second half - at a numerical disadvantage.

A WELL-MANAGED PENALTY SHOOT-OUT

Despite this setback, Nice continued their efforts. Although neither Sofiane Diop, via a direct free-kick (50‘), nor Moïse Bombito, who fired in a powerful header from a corner (53’), found the net, Tanguy Ndombele stepped up and got his team-mates back into the game. Taking advantage of Badredine Bouanani's thwarted shot and a scramble in the Corte defence, the French international rounded Luciani before slotting into the empty net (1-1, 60').

Dominant against a flagging Corte side, Les Aiglons pushed forward to score a second, but Luciani was again on hand to deny Guessand - on two occasions (68', 74') - and then save off the line from Moukoko's powerful shot (89').

The tie then went to penalties. As they had done against Auxerre in their opener in France's oldest club competition last season, Les Rouge et Noir stayed cool, calm and collected, converting all five of their spot-kicks with Laborde, Ndombele, Diop, Bouanani and Clauss all successful. With their place in the Round of 16 in the bag, Franck Haise's men can now turn their attention to the winter break, which is needed to recharge the batteries after a testing first half of the season. They can look forward to the draw at 20:00 on Sunday, before heading off on holiday. Next match: against Rennes in Ligue 1 on 3 January 2025.

Hugo Rondet