Nice’s Dream is Still Alive!

The Lucien Favre’s players managed to knock Ajax out of The Champions League after 3-3 on aggregate after the second leg of the battle. With the success Nice qualified for the playoffs of the tournament, which keeps their dream of finding a place in the group stage alive!

The first match between these two teams finished with a 1-1 draw in France, which gave Ajax an advantage with an away goal. The Dutchmen could even win the game, but they missed a lot of goal-scoring chances and even hit the woodwork. However, the second leg was more interesting. It took Nice only 2 minutes to open the score in Amsterdam. The right full-back Arnaud Souquet took advantage of the situation, in which the Ajax goalkeeper parried away a shot from Lees Melou, and the defender found himself on an open goal. 0-1!

The Dutchmen equalized the score in the 26th minute, when the midfielder Donny van de Beek found the net. Then, Davinson Sanchez Mina scored another goal for Ajax, which completed the turnaround in the score. The substitution Vincent Marcel won the match for Nice, he received a magnificent back-heel pass from Jean Michael Seri and put the ball into the net for 2-2.

This victory guarantees Nice at least a place in the group stage of the Europa League. However, that’s not the goal of the team. Lucien Favre and his players dream of a qualification in the Champions League, which will be a historical one for the Eagles. Their biggest achievement in the European club competitions is reaching the quarterfinals of the European Cup (1957 and 1960), but both times they lost to Real Madrid. Their participation in the ECC in 1960 was their last in the most prestigious European club tournament.

Nice had very good chances of winning the title last season, but the class of Monaco and PSG left The Eagles in the third position in the standings. They also took part in the group stage of The Europa League, but the performance there wasn’t good enough. At both ends, the previous campaign was one of the best in Nice’s history, but the current one looks like even more promising!