Nice, who played most of the second half with 10 men, downed Marseille 2-1 on Friday to compound an already trying week for the French giants and put an unexpected dent in their Ligue 1 title aspirations.
Second half goals from Romain Genevois and Niklas Hult earned Nice the deserved bragging rights in a frenetic Mediterranean derby and left Marseille seeking their first win on the road in three months
Marseille turned up at Nice’s Allianz Riviera stadium anxious to get down to the business of playing football and forget about their legal woes that saw a dozen people arrested this week in connection with an inquiry into suspect transfers.
Former coach and sporting director Jose Anigo was among the group picked up for questioning and subsequently released without charge.
The suspect transfers being investigated date back to 2010 and include that of French international striker Andre-Pierre Gignac.
In front of 30,000 fans Nice were seeking to secure their third successive league win, while Marseille were intent on keeping the pressure on Lyon at the summit.
The loss kept them one point adrift of Lyon, who can extend their advantage when they take on fourth-from-bottom Metz on Sunday. Nice moved up to ninth, on 31 points.
“I think we did enough to win the match but we have to give credit to our opponents who played 35 minutes with 10 men,” said Marseille coach Marcelo Bielsa.
“And they never stopped attacking even when a man down.”
In a free-flowing first period an early poor clearance by Marseille keeper Steve Mandanda was pounced on by Alassane Plea but the Nice attacker’s attempt went wide.
Down at the other end, Marseille’s Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi shrugged off his Nice minders to strike a tricky volley over the crossbar after a precision cross from Florian Thauvin on the left.
On 21 minutes Eric Bautheac’s free-kick into the Marseille penalty area was narrowly headed over the bar by Plea.
Shortly after Bautheac briefly needed medical attention after being felled by Baptiste Aloe, the Marseille man receiving the first booking of the game.
Despite their endeavour neither side had a single shot on target in the first half.
That all changed two minutes after the restart when Valentin Eysseric sent a cross into the area and after a frantic goalmouth scramble Haiti defender Genevois poked the ball across the line with his right-foot for his first goal for the club.
On 55 minutes Nice were down to 10 men when Kevin Gomis picked up his second booking, two minutes after his first for obstructing Dimitri Payet.
On the hour, Mandanda denied an attempt by Nampalys Mendy, but on 73 minutes the Marseille keeper was uable to stop Hult’s close-range shot.
The excellent Thauvin gave Marseille a glimmer of hope of getting something out of the game with a left-footed lob over Nice keeper Mouez Hassen and into an empty net with 13 minutes remaining.
While Lyon are at Metz, champions Paris Saint-Germain, who knocked Bordeaux out of the French Cup midweek, face a tricky trip to St Etienne.
PSG are placed third, four points behind Lyon, with St Etienne a point behind the French capital club in fourth.
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10-man Nice compound Marseille"s woes
