Nice moved back into second place in Ligue 1 Uber Eats thanks to a Khephren Thuram goal and a late Amine Gouiri penalty that gave them a 2-0 win at in-form Metz on Sunday.
THE MATCH
Metz had hauled themselves out of the relegation zone with two wins and just one defeat in their previous four league games, and with Nice missing Andy Delort — a late withdrawal due to illness — the visitors' ambitions of climbing back above Marseille were in some jeopardy.
Christophe Galtier's men had rattled off four straight league victories before coming to Lorraine, however, and immediately set to work testing Marc-Aurèle Caillard in the home goal: Gouiri — paired up front with Kasper Dolberg — seeing his effort instinctively kicked away (16').
Frédéric Antonetti's side had won 1-0 at the Allianz Riviera earlier in the season, but the Metz coach's 600th Ligue 1 game in the dug-out never looked likely to end happily and he saw Caillard again keep out the visitors, this time blocking Calvin Stengs' volley from Dolberg's cross (30').
Gouiri fired wide (38') as Nice, who had won a Ligue 1-high seven away games before kick-off, sought to re-establish the two-point advantage they had over OM before Jorge Sampaoli's men won at Lens on Saturday.
The breakthrough finally came just before the hour-mark: Metz forward Ibrahima Niane could only help on a Nice free-kick, the ball was recycled to Gouiri on the right, and his curling cross did not get the sweetest connection from Thuram, but it was enough to beat Caillard (58').
A succession of substitutions broke the fluency of the game which was only refound 14 minutes from time when Gouiri thought he had doubled his team's lead. The France U21 international latched onto Evann Guessand's ball, but VAR spotted an offside.
But the pair linked up again — this time successfully — to take Gouiri into double figures for league goals this season. Guessand won the penalty from Vincent Pajot's challenge, and Gouiri cheekily chipped in the spot-kick (86') to keep Galtier's men riding high.
THE PLAYER: Amine Gouiri
The former Lyon youth academy product's top-drawer performances in the 18 months since his arrival at Nice are no longer a real surprise, and the 21-year-old — he turns 22 next month — continues to deliver. He is the youngest Nice player to get double figures for top-flight goals in back-to-back campaigns since Charly Loubet in 1965/66 and 1966/67.
THE STAT: 3
Gouiri joins Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappé as the only U23 players to have scored 10+ goals and registered 5+ assists in one of Europe's top 5 leagues this season.
