Away to SC Bastia this evening, OGC Nice put in a dominant performance to earn themselves a 1-0 win and thereby book their place in the last 16 of the Coupe de France, with Mohamed-Ali Cho scoring the only goal of the game on the hour mark.

There are certain games where the end result matters more than anything else, and tonight’s Coupe de France last-32 tie between Le Gym and SC Bastia was certainly one of them, firstly because such is the very nature of a derby – a derby that hasn’t been played competitively since a 1-1 draw in Furiani in January 2017 – and secondly because French football’s oldest competition tends to play tricks on the so-called “favourites”, as demonstrated by Franck Haise’s men’s opening encounter in this season’s edition of the cup, which saw them get pushed all the way to penalties by fifth-tier outfit USC Corte towards the end of 2024.

As a result, Nice’s return to the Stade Armand Cesari less than a month later had all the makings of a potential banana skin for Les Rouge et Noir, but in a hostile atmosphere and on a tricky pitch, the visitors got the job done, coming out on top by the tightest of margins thanks to Mohamed-Ali Cho’s fourth goal of the campaign across all competitions.

Just three days after their fine 4-2 win away to Reims and three days before their trip to Lille, the Côte d’Azur club naturally lined up in a makeshift XI this evening. Out went Marcin Bułka, Dante, Jonathan Clauss, Tanguy Ndombele, Gaëtan Laborde and Sofiane Diop, respectively replaced by Maxime Dupé, Mohamed Abdelmonem, Antoine Mendy, Pablo Rosario, Youssoufa Moukoko and the aforementioned Cho.

During a spell of pressure from a Bastia side currently sitting ninth in Ligue 2 and unbeaten on home turf so far this season, it was Les Aiglons who conceded the first chance of the match in the eighth minute, when the hosts’ captain, Christophe Vincent, was left unmarked 25 yards out and used that space to let off a long-range shot that was palmed away by a diving Maxime Dupé. Melvin Bard and co. would go on to control the tempo of the majority of the first half without managing to disrupt the Corsicans’ compact defensive unit.

maxime dupé PROVES THE HERO

It wasn’t until the half-hour mark that Le Gym showed their first sign of danger in attack, with a devastating forward run from Cho leading to a header from Bard that was blocked by defender Dominique Guidi just in front of his own goal line, but this was to be a rather isolated chance in a tight first half that Les Aiglons almost ended by going a goal down. In fine form over on the left wing, Amine Boutrah drew Antoine Mendy into a minor foul inside the box, and, wanting to take justice into his own hands, the Bastia striker stepped up to the penalty spot with the aim of opening the scoring. Maxime Dupé had other ideas, however, as he made a perfect dive to stop the mid-range spot kick before quickly getting up again to punch away Tom Ducrocq’s header back across goal.

Reinvigorated by this extremely close shave, Les Rouge et Noir began the second half with the pedal to the metal. After getting the ball on the edge of the box, Youssoufa Moukoko came to the fore with a curling effort that took a slight deflection and was pushed away by Julien Fabri in the 48th minute. With a much stronger presence in their duels at this point, Evann Guessand and his teammates opted for long balls forward as they looked to avoid any unfortunate bounces on an increasingly delicate pitch. The pressure was now mounting on the hosts’ goal, but Rosario, despite taking up a decent position inside the penalty area, was unable to beat Fabri with a right-footed strike shortly after the hour mark.

GUESSAND AND CHO MAKE THE DIFFerENCE

Having yet again put in a punchy performance and made himself a handful for the opposition defence, it was Guessand who initiated the move that led to the winning goal. After bagging a goal and an assist against Rennes as well as getting himself on the scoresheet away to Reims, the Nice forward cut inside from the left, combined with Badredine Bouanani and calmly sent a low cross towards Cho at the far post, where the former Real Sociedad winger, who was making his first start of 2025, simply had to sidefoot the ball in to make it 1-0 in the 62nd minute.

Pushed on by the Furiani faithful, Bastia would obviously react and make for a lively end to the match, during which Le Gym missed the opportunity to put matters to bed from a Clauss corner that was flicked on by Guessand at the far post and came close to beating Fabri, but the final chance was for the home side and Julien Maggiotti. With a sumptuous free kick from the left edge of the box, the attacking midfielder very nearly found the top corner, but Dupé went diving across his goal once more to get a decisive glove to the ball.

By staying solid despite the hosts’ pressure and earning their first clean sheet since their 1-0 win over Brest on 2nd November 2024, Les Aiglons achieved their primary aim of booking their spot in the last 16 of the Coupe de France – a round that they have now reached in three of the last four seasons – with the draw for the next stage of the competition set to take place at 20:00 CET this Thursday.

Hugo Rondet