MATCH REPORT | Nice 2-2 Lausanne: Franck Haise era begins with a draw

Luke Entwistle reporting from Nice

Franck Haise began his reign as manager of OGC Nice with a 2-2 draw against fellow INEOS-owned side Lausanne Sport on Wednesday.

Nice took the lead thanks to a goal from Mohamed Ali-Cho midway through the second half, making use of some good work from Jeremie Boga and then BIllal Brahimi in a vertical, transitional move. Le Gym then doubled their lead in the second-half through Evann Guessand after being put through by Badredine Bouanani, reutrning from his loan spell at FC Lorient.

However, Laussane are more advanced in their preparation. Unlike Nice, who only returned a week ago, Laussane returned to pre-season training a month ago, ahead of the start of their domestic season, which gets underway against Basel on 21st July.

That superior fitness showed late on. Fousseni Diabaté got one back midway through the second-half before Gánor Szalai then levelled the scores in the dying seconds. “For a first match, in these conditions, against an opposition that are four weeks ahead of us (in terms of prepration), there were some interesting things, even if we aren’t at 100%,” said the new Nice manager.

Haise is in the midst of establishing a new 3-4-3 system and is happy with the speed in which it is being adopted by his squad. “In quite a few situations, really for the first time, for players that haven’t been in this system, for just a week, I didn’t expect the level of quality of movement that we saw,” he told Get French Football News.

Nice will continue their preparation against Leganes (19th July) before heading out on a pre-season training camp in Austria. For that camp, they will hope to begin to integrate some returning/ injrued players. Tanguy Ndombélé is not yet in first-team training but may be in around a week. Youssouf Ndayishimiye was injured on international duty and is also expected back in first-team training in around one week’s time. Marcin Bulka will also return from holidays following the conclusion of his Euro 2024 campaign with Poland.

The absences did allow for some of Nice’s youth players to impress their new manager. Daouda Traoré certainly took his chance, as did Amidou Doumbouya, who looked composed alongside Dante and Jean-Clair Todibo in the first-half. The latter’s future with Les Aiglons remains unclear amid significant inerest in his services.

Nice first-half line-up

Maxime Dupé; Amidou Doumbouya, Jean-Clair Todibo, Dante; Billal Brahimi, Hicham Boudaoui, Rares Ilie, Jordan Lotomba; Jérémie Boga, Terem Moffi, Mohamed Ali-Cho.

Nice second-half line-up

Teddy Boulhendi; Ayoub Amraoui, Pablo Rosario, Antoine Mendy; Melvin Bard, Daouda Traoré, Morgan Sanson, Tom Louchet; Badredine Bouanani, Evann Guessand, Gaëtan Laborde.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Photo source: Luke Entwistle