Nice Humiliate Marseille 5-0 in a Riviera Derby That Became a Rout
OGC Nice tore through Olympique de Marseille on Sunday, turning a recent derby draw into a one-sided Ligue 1 Uber Eats beating.
Five goals, no reply, and a derby that was over almost before the noise had settled. OGC Nice crushed Olympique de Marseille 5-0 on Sunday, following October’s 3-3 draw and leaving their local rivals with one shot on target.
Etienne Fritsch struck after three minutes, meeting the moment with a volley through the middle. The Allianz Riviera had barely caught its breath when Piero Risi doubled Nice’s lead on 29 minutes, finishing with a mid-height shot from close range. Six minutes later Robert Poch volleyed high into the net. Three goals before half-time: Marseille’s evening was already slipping away.
Nice did not let them back into it. Fritsch volleyed in again from close range on 70 minutes, then Diarmuid Healy-Byrne added the fifth on 81, a mid-height shot with the final word in a derby that had stopped being a contest and become a statement.
Risi was at the heart of the show, scoring once and assisting twice as Nice made their possession count. Fritsch supplied two goals and an assist; Poch added a goal of his own. Marseille, by contrast, managed five shots and just one on target. Nice had 16 attempts, nine on target and 55 per cent of the ball. The figures tell the story; the score made sure nobody could miss it.
Before Sunday, Marseille and Nice had drawn 3-3 in October. Earlier, Nice had beaten Marseille 5-4 in August 2062 and 4-1 that February.
Nice’s Diarmuid Healy-Byrne also went into the book, but his goal in the closing stretch put a bright finish on a night when the home side owned the derby’s rhythm and its roar.
Marseille old boy Ludovic Terrien, who spent three seasons at Nice before moving across the rivalry, was part of the story in the stands of the fixture if not the scoreline: this was a bruising return to a derby whose recent history had promised another shoot-out. Instead Nice delivered a shut-out. After a week in which French clubs’ European fortunes brought both wins and defeats, this was a domestic result with no ambiguity: Nice took the Riviera derby by five, and Marseille were left with nothing to answer.