Marseille were met by a vociferous home crowd at the Allianz Riviera and a defence that had kept the most clean sheets in the top five leagues, yet still pushed forward in an open start to proceedings with Iliman Ndiaye heading off-target.
Les Aiglons were expectedly strong defensively, and even when Morgan Sanson under-hit a passback, Marcin Bułka was aware enough to rush out and reach the ball ahead of the scampering Ismaïla Sarr.
Les Olympiens thought they had opened the scoring 25 minutes in when Chancel Mbemba played an outstanding pass for Sarr to run onto and finish, although the Senegal international was once again left disappointed as he strayed offside.
More hope was offered by Melvin Bard’s pass being cut out but that was also immediately retracted as the left-back dispossessed Amine Harit, with Marseille quickly growing frustrated by their inability to break down Francesco Farioli’s resolute outfit.
That was almost compounded by a Terem Moffi shot that eventually deflected wide off Leonardo Balerdi.
Nice suffered disappointment of their own with Jordan Lotomba going off injured before the break, but that did nothing to disrupt them with Gaëtan Laborde hitting an ambitious strike over the crossbar shortly after the restart.
Aside from Nice’s added attacking threat, Gennaro Gattuso had another issue to deal with as goalkeeper Pau Lopez suffered an injury. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then came closer than anyone had done when he raced onto Valentin Rongier’s pass and delicately dinked the ball past Bułka, but the ball grazed the post on its way behind.
Marseille’s night quickly turned as Leonardo Balerdi was sent off after receiving two yellow cards in three minutes, the second of which conceded a free-kick that Jérémie Boga floated in for Evann Guessand to head home.
With Nice maintaining the defensive solidity they have become so renowned for, they kept the fifth clean sheet in their last six matches to continue Ligue 1’s only unbeaten record this season and go top of the table for the time being. Les Olympiens, meanwhile, suffered the third defeat in their last four league games.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jean-Clair Todibo (Nice)
