OGC Nice – Benfica: As Aguias sore in Clash of the Eagles (0-2)

The Champions League third round qualifiers have not often been kind to French teams, and OGC Nice would be the latest to run the gauntlet as they hosted SL Benfica. What looked like a balanced game on paper turned out to be anything but the case, as As Aguias overwhelmed Les Aiglons to take a 2-0 lead back to the Estádio da Luz in this Clash of the Eagles.

Tactical analysis and match report by Nick Hartland.

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Injuries have been the continuing story of Franck Haise’s time at OGC Nice. Last season, the sickbay was overflowing, with Haise telling reporters that “Even with the presence of the young players, we don’t have a group of 20 players to work with an opposition.” And even now the club are without Moïse Bombito, Mohamed-Ali Cho, Tanguy Ndombélé, Ali Abdi, and Sofiane Diop. 

There were no surprises from the head coach, as he lined his side up in his favoured 3-4-3 shape. Yehvann Diouf made his debut in goal, with a back three of Dante, Juma Bah (also a debutant), and Antoine Mendy. Melvin Bard and Jonathan Clauss flanked a double pivot of Morgan Sanson and Hicham Bouadoui. Up front, new signing Isak Jansson helped Badredine Bouanani support Terem Moffi as the number nine.

Last season, SL Benfica vanquished Nice’s local rivals, AS Monaco, in the knockout round playoffs. An occasion that had more than a little bit of needle between the two coaches, with Bruno Lage taking umbrage at Adi Hütter’s comments that Monaco had been unlucky, “You know, every time I win, I’m always lucky… I’ve played against him five times, and he always complains. Sometimes it’s the coach, sometimes it’s luck.” 

Lage would be hoping that his luck against Côte d’Azur teams would continue, picking a 4-4-2 formation for the occasion. Anatoliy Trubin started in goal, with Samuel Dahl, Nicolás Otamendi, António Silva, and Amar Dedić in defense. In midfield, Enzo Barrenechea and Richard Ríos, with Andreas Schjelderup and Fredrik Aursnes on the wings. Up front, Vangelis Pavlidis and Franjo Ivanović rounded out the numbers. 

Benfica set tempo

From the opening exchanges, Nice were put into trouble as they tried to play their way out from the back. Benfica pressed aggressively from the front, shifting into a 3-4-3 shape to match Nice’s in-possession shape and to restrict access between the midfield and the defense. This pushed Nice onto the back foot as they looked increasingly to Diouf as their out ball. 

Diouf, signed from Stade de Reims this summer, is excellent with the ball at his feet and was bought in part because he can recycle possession. However, he was not given a chance to find a short pass, as the moment he gained control of the ball, Benfica’s press would be triggered, with Pavlidis stepping up to put him under pressure. Instead, Diouf would be pushed into a rushed long ball, with Benfica backing their ability to win the majority of the subsequent 1v1s. 

There were several let-offs for Nice in the first half, as Benfica squandered their chance to take the lead, with Schjelderup, Rios, and Pavlidis all testing Diouf’s shot-stopping ability without finding the back of the net, while Bard came close down the other end. For Haise, the biggest worry came in the 28th minute when Sanson was forced off the pitch, with Tom Louchet replacing him. 

Fourth minute: Otamendi leaps out of the back three to create a man-to-man press. Benfica cut off the passing lanes and put pressure on Diouf to play the long ball rather than risk playing through the press. Diouf kicks it towards Bouanani but ends up playing it out of bounds, giving Benfica possession. 

Nice fall behind

The second half brought no relief to the hosts, and it would take only seven minutes before Benfica found the back of the net. Bard was left to flounder on the left of the defense as Dedić skipped past him and shifted the ball out to Aursnes. Bard tried to recover from his mistake with a sliding tackle, but the winger read his intentions and moved into space. 

From out wide, Aursnes delivered an inviting cross to Ivanović. The striker, unmarked and with clear sight of goal, leapt forward to turn the shot past Diouf and give Benfica a well-deserved lead. The question for Les Aiglons was how would they respond now that they had finally gone behind. 

The answer in short: they wouldn’t. Nice didn’t look to change their approach to this game, and therefore Benfica never had to adjust a game plan that was working dangerously well. Nice were far too careless when they had control of the ball. They often looked to force the pass and go over the top of the Benfica press, which perhaps would have been fine if their passes were hit with any consistency. Instead, it felt more like they were giving up control too frequently and in ways that suited a team that had proven to be dangerous. 

62nd minute: Benfica press Bah and force the centre-back into a trap. The defender spots a pocket of space that the visitors have created, but when he tries to play the ball into Bouanani, the jaws of the trap snap shut. Dahl intercepts and knocks the ball onto Barrenechea, who pings a pass into Ivanović. The striker advances into the box and takes a shot, which is parried away by Diouf. 

The final nail

Benfica deserved far more from this game than just the one-goal lead. Diouf had been in solid form, protecting the goal and keeping the visitors from running away with this match. However, two minutes before regulation time, the former Reims man had his first big blunder and allowed Benfica to double their lead. 

The substitute Florentino Luís collected the ball in acres of space outside of the box. Nice, who had been looking to lick their wounds at the final whistle, satisfied that the deficit would be narrow ahead of the away tie, had decided to flood their box with defenders. Luís took the surprising choice to fire from distance. His shot was not particularly powerful, but it still found its way past Diouf, who was as surprised as the rest of the stadium that the former Monaco loanee had decided to shoot. 

2-0 was a far more reflective scoreline, and one that certainly felt as if the final nail had already been placed at the halfway point of this two-legged affair.

Takeaways

For Haise, the matter certainly seems to be resolved. The former RC Lens head coach took a defeatist approach, telling reporters after the game, “We aren’t in the same category. We knew that beforehand, and we tried to disrupt them, but at the end of the match, we know we aren’t in the same category.” 

Certainly, comments that will go down well with Lage, the manager set out his game plan, and the team delivered. If he had one complaint, it would be that they were unable to twist the knife more. It’s hard to see Nice recovering on the strength of this performance… but as the cliché goes, 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline. , but one that certainly felt as if it had put this tie to bed long before the Ligue 1 side