In sometimes torrential rain, Nice drowned against Lazio, impressively efficient (4-1) during the second day of the Europa League, Thursday in Rome.
The Roman escapade of « Gym » turned into a nightmare and nothing worked for the Niçois, overwhelmed in particular by the omnipresent Argentine striker Valentin “Dad” Castellanos.
Starting with the weather: while it was still 25° the day before, the Olympic Stadium was transformed under the effect of almost uninterrupted downpours into a swimming pool with a pitch sometimes at the limit of the passable.
But the external conditions do not alone explain the rout of the OGCN, which fell against a relentless Lazio, even more attractive than ever since the start of its season.
“The pitch was not good for both teams, but when you are leading, it is much easier (…), we wanted to try to play, but it was very complicated”summarized Nice captain Dante.
Like their first half hour against Lens (0-0) last weekend where they saw all the colors, Franck Haise’s players completely missed the start of the match.
They left control of the ball to Lazio who created a first opportunity in the 11th minute when Pedro, on a cross from Adam Marusic, presented himself alone in front of Marcin Bulka, before being caught at the last minute by Youssouf Ndayishimiye.
On the following corner, Castellanos propelled the ball onto the Nice crossbar to the great relief of the beaten Bulka.
The Roman pressure, illustrated by a new cross on a shot from Matias Vecino (14th), was rewarded in the 20th minute in the most beautiful way.
Double of Castellanos
On a corner taken by Pedro, the Nice defense had all the difficulty in the world to clear the ball which returned to the feet of the former FC Barcelona player, who, although very eccentric, propelled it into the Nice corner .
Despite a timid start, Nice conceded a second goal in the 35th minute when their defense was surprised by a bright opening in the middle for Castellanos who doubled the lead by poking his ball over Bulka.
Shortly before the break (41st), Jérémie Boga gave hope to the 800 Nice supporters present in Rome by reducing the score, after a one-two with Youssoufa Moukoko.
But Nice’s hopes were quickly dashed after the break when the inevitable Castellanos brought the score to 3-1 after a superb individual raid (53rd).
While the playing conditions deteriorated with the formation of puddles slowing down the ball in the center of the field in particular, Lazio made the Niçois drink the chalice to the dregs with a fourth goal on a penalty from Mattia Zaccagni (67th , 4-1).
After its draw against Real Sociedad (1-1) which had raised many hopes, Nice, whose squad was decimated by injuries, fell from a height. And it’s perhaps not over: Sunday, OGC hosts Paris SG, upset by its defeat at Arsenal (2-0) in the Champions League.
“Despite the score, we fought well,” said Dante. We did everything to get a good result, there were days like that, they didn’t have many chances but they were very realistic, us less so, even if there are things to improve.”.
Lazio is already the scarecrow of this C3, with two convincing successes (3-0 against Dynamo kyiv on the first day).
“We produced a good match against a good team”rejoiced his trainer Marco Baroni.