Flavius Daniliuc’s first Ligue 1 Uber Eats goal gave OGC Nice a 2-1 win over Stade Rennais FC at Roazhon Park on Friday, condemning their opponents to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions.
Stade Rennais FC 1-2 OGC Nice
THE MATCH
Austrian defender Daniliuc, a summer signing from Bayern Munich, stooped to head Amine Gouiri’s free-kick delivery from the right flank into the far corner of the net in the 58th minute as Nice ended a run of three consecutive defeats in a troubled campaign and shot up to 12th place in the table. This result gives them even more breathing space in relation to the teams at the foot of the table, while it is a hammer-blow to Rennes’s hopes of returning to Europe next season.
Nice had taken the lead in Brittany when Gouiri converted a penalty awarded when the lively Hicham Boudaoui was brought down in the area by Damien Da Silva (19’), and they almost doubled their advantage when Myziane Maolida saw his powerful shot come back off the upright.
Instead Rennes drew level six minutes before the interval thanks to a splendid individual goal by Martin Terrier, who collected a poor ball out from the back by William Saliba and advanced before firing a tremendous strike from 25 metres high into the net.
Yet a Nice team that has looked fragile for much of this season managed to find a winner in the second half and could even have scored again, with Gouiri hitting the bar inside the final 20 minutes.
It is just a fourth win in 16 league games for Nice since Adrian Ursea replaced Patrick Vieira as coach, while Rennes are now seven matches without a win in all competitions, a run that has seriously compromised their chances of a top-five finish. Julien Stéphan’s team must to go Lyon next.
THE PLAYER: Amine Gouiri
Without the France Under-21 forward Nice really would have been in trouble this season. While Kasper Dolberg was still missing here, Gouiri converted a penalty for his 10th Ligue 1 Uber Eats goal this season, his third in as many games and his 14th in all competitions. He then set up Daniliuc’s winner with a fine dead-ball delivery.
THE STAT: 6
Rennes are winless in their last six Ligue 1 Uber Eats games, their worst run in the top flight since a seven-game stretch in September and October 2019.
