Reims (AFP)

After five consecutive defeats in all competitions and an elimination from the Europa League, Nice brought back a logical draw from Reims (0-0) with his new coach Adrian Ursea, Sunday during the 13th day of L1.

The 53-year-old Romanian, former assistant to Patrick Vieira, was propelled head coach on Friday after the dismissal of the 98 world champion, the day after elimination in C3.

He had announced that he wanted to "reassure himself" in Reims during his first press conference: the Niçois did so in part by stopping their bad series but this will undoubtedly be the only reason for the satisfaction of the new Aiglons coach.

In great difficulty in the standings (17th) and sharply beaten ten to eleven last weekend in Lyon (0-3), the Champenois tried to jostle the Nice in the second half, without success.

Confused and feverish, the two teams did not manage to find the fault in this disputed part under a thick fog.

With their current difficulties, we almost forget that six months ago, Nice and Reims finished respectively 5th and 6th in L1 ...

For his first on the Aiglons bench, the Riviera coach, still deprived of many executives (Dante, Youcef Atal, Pierre Lees-Melou, Kasper Dolberg), decided to make three changes compared to the last eleven of Patrick Vieira, tenured Morgan Schneiderlin, Hicham Boudaoui and Rony Lopes.

The Nice attacking trio, Jeff Reine-Adélaïde in the lead, initially disrupted the game of the locals.

The former Lyonnais even had the opportunity to open the scoring after 10 minutes when with a hook, he eliminated Marshall Munetsi and goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic but Yunis Abdelhamid, well back, saved his camp from a furious tackle .

It was again Reine-Adelaide who served Lopes in the box, but the Portuguese lost his duel against Rajkovic (53rd).

Amine Gouiri also tried his luck on several occasions, (46th, 58th, 78th) but the Serbian goalkeeper, excellent, had the last word each time.

At first unrecognizable and forced to commit many technical faults, the Rémois gradually returned to the game at the end of the first period.

Despite Arber Zeneli, who has honored his first tenure since October 4, neither the Kosovar (51st), nor Mathieu Cafaro (35th, 50th) have succeeded in deceiving the vigilance of Walter Benitez.

It was finally Valon Berisha who almost turned the premiere of Ursea into a nightmare, on a late free kick (86th), in vain.

A logical blank draw that does not allow Reims (17th) or Nice (11th) to advance in the standings.

© 2020 AFP