This Tuesday, the Gym plays a round of 16 match in the French Cup on the SC Bastia pitch. A perilous trip awaits the Eagles in the form of a rivalry between the two clubs. All the pre-match information can be found here.
A new trip to Corsica for OGC Nice! After the challenging elimination of US Corte, with penalty shootouts, the Gym now faces SC Bastia. As part of the French Cup round of 16, the Eagles will once again play at Stade Furiani (kick-off at 8:45 PM). On paper, Nice seems to be the favorite, but the task will not be easy. Even though the two clubs haven’t faced each other in recent years, the rivalry of this derby persists among the fans.
In this context, a prefectural order prohibits all travel of the red and black supporters to the “Île de Beauté,” just like during the match against Corte. The last official match between these two teams was on September 20, 2017 (1-1). One Eagle was already in the Gym’s ranks back then: the indomitable Dante. Under the direction of Lucien Favre, the Brazilian international was already the captain of his defense.
Ndombele uncertain
For this second match of the week, Franck Haise might make several changes to his starting eleven. Long-term absentees (Jérémie Boga, Terem Moffi, Morgan Sanson, Victor Orakpo) remain unavailable. Suffering from a hamstring issue and substituted at halftime against Reims (4-2), Jonathan Clauss is expected to be available. This may not be the case for Tanguy Ndombele. Physically touched, the midfielder from Nice is announced as doubtful by his coach in the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
Franck Haise also took the opportunity to clarify the hierarchy of his goalkeepers in the French Cup. Having already started against Corte, Maxime Dupé will again be in goal for Nice in this match, as will be the case throughout the competition. This decision allows Marcin Bulka to rest. The giant Pole hasn’t missed a single match in Ligue 1 and Europa League this season.
On the other side, SC Bastia arrives in great form. Benoît Tavenot’s men crushed their neighbor, Ajaccio, this weekend (4-0). The Corsicans are now ranked 8th in Ligue 2 and are still in the running for promotion to the top tier. In the French Cup, Christophe Vincent’s teammates easily eliminated Saint-Joseph (R1 Martinique) in the previous round.
Probable line-ups:
Bastia: Fabri – Bonhert, Guidi, Roncaglia, Ariss – Janneh, Ducrocq – Tramoni, Vincent, Boutrah – Cissé
Nice: Dupé – Louchet, Ndayishimiye, Abdelmonem, Abdi – Rosario, Boudaoui, Diop – Cho, Laborde, Moukoko