Nice suffered a surprise defeat as Fabien Centonze scored the only goal of the game to give bottom side Metz a 1-0 victory over their second-placed hosts at the Allianz Riviera on Saturday.
THE MATCH
After Lens had failed to take second place with their draw at home to Angers 24 hours earlier, Nice could have pulled clear of third-placed Rennes and the northerners — just a point behind — with a victory over a team that had previously won just once all season.
Christophe Galtier had called for "more personality" from his team following last weekend's laboured win over Clermont, and with Dante returning from suspension to captain the side, last season's Ligue 1 Uber Eats title-winning coach could have been forgiven for thinking he would get it.
He also brought in Calvin Stengs and Justin Kluivert and left Kasper Dolberg on the bench having seen his experiment of playing the Denmark international along with Amine Gouiri and Andy Delort up front last weekend fail to bear fruit.
The latter two did start, but they and the Dutch duo out wide failed to produce much of note before the break: Gouiri had a shot blocked (43'), before Stengs put over a cross that Delort met with a firm header, but Alexandre Oukidja blocked the ex-Montpellier forward's effort with a leg (45') to preserve his team's lead.
That had come from a superb move started and finished by Centonze. The right-wing back's first touch took him past a Nice player just inside the hosts' half, and he then played a perfectly weighted pass into the path of Nicolas de Préville. The former Bordeaux and Lille forward's first-time cross into the box was met by Centonze, who expertly guided a low shot across Walter Benitez and into the far corner (31').
Kluivert, given his first start since late September after recovering from a hamstring injury, cut inside dangerously from the left, but saw his shot deflect up and over the Metz goal off Dylan Bronn, the visiting captain just one of a number of Metz players who threw themselves in the way of shots (53').
While Jean-Clair Todibo recovered well to block an Ibrahima Niane shot with Nice looking like they had been caught on the counter-attack (55'), the young defender's centre-back partner Dante tried his luck from distance (64') with the hosts growing increasingly desperate.
Khephren Thuram and Morgan Schneiderlin were introduced off the bench, and the latter fired just wide (78') before Delort saw a header drop the wrong side of a post with Oukidja beaten (89') as Metz claimed a surprise but deserved three points.
THE PLAYER: Fabien Centonze
The right wing-back scored the decisive second goal at Brest to give Metz their first league victory of the 2021/22 season, and his fourth strike of the campaign — making him his team's leading scorer — earned them another three points.
THE STAT: 9
This was the first time Galtier had lost back-to-back home L1 games since he was the Saint-Etienne coach in December 2012, almost nine years ago.