Cyprien gives Vieira’s Nice victory at Bordeaux

Girondins de Bordeaux  0 – 1  OGC Nice

THE MATCH

How Nice needed this result after taking just one point from their previous three outings. They will feel it was a deserved victory too, with Nice eventually coming good after a first-half in which Mario Balotelli sent a shot just wide on the turn from the edge of the box, before Benoît Costil produced a fine stop to deny Danilo Barbosa.

The breakthrough came nine minutes into the second half, with Cyprien springing forward from midfield and collecting the return pass from Allan Saint-Maximin just outside the area before slotting low past Costil (54′).

There was an attempt at a fightback from Bordeaux, with Jimmy Briand missing a good chance to snatch a quick equaliser before Lukas Lerager crashed a tremendous shot off the bar with Walter Benítez beaten (69′).

Andreas Cornelius was then denied by an excellent Benítez save deep in injury time as Nice held on for a win that sees them move level on points with Bordeaux in the Ligue 1 Conforama table. It has been a miserable week for Ricardo’s side, with back-to-back league defeats – both without scoring a goal – either side of a UEFA Europa League reverse away to Zenit in Russia.

THE PLAYER: Wylan Cyprien

Superb in 2016-17 before spending much of last season recovering from a serious knee injury, midfielder Cyprien has not had an easy start to this campaign. This was much more like it from the 23-year-old, though, with the goal his first since the beginning of March. Also heavily involved in the action in the middle of the park, his coach Patrick Vieira will take great encouragement from the performance of a player who was tipped for a France call-up at one point a couple of years ago.

THE STAT: 0

Eleven weeks into the season and still no goals for Mario Balotelli. Vieira needs to get the Italian firing if his side are to start challenging towards the top of the table.

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