OGC Nice Vs Olympique de Marseille [1–5] – Ligue 1 2025/2026: Roberto De Zerbi Tactics To Dominate The Derby – Tactical Analysis

Olympique de Marseille succeeded in getting a very important away win at the Allianz Riviera, beating OGC Nice 1-5 in the derby.

The win helps Les Olympiens pile additional pressure on PSG in the title race.

The fact that they were able to win by such a large scoreline away to one of the most difficult teams in Ligue 1 can only give the team even more confidence in their ability to challenge for the title until the end.

On the other hand, OGC Nice suffered a heavy loss at their own stadium, and this result can only aggravate the team’s already poor form, as they have lost six games, drawn two, and won five so far.

Holding the ninth spot is certainly not OGC Nice’s seasonal objective as they strive to reach a European spot at least.

But to do so, a lot of things need to be fixed in order to upgrade the team’s performances and avoid dropping points regularly.

In this tactical analysis article, our focus will be on exploring OGC Nice’s attacking issues and what prevented them from scoring more than one goal.

The analysis will also shed some light on Olympique de Marseille’s convincing attacking performance and on how they succeeded in breaking OGC Nice’s defensive line on numerous occasions, thanks mainly to their attacking trio.

OGC Nice Vs Olympique De Marseille Formations & Lineups

Franck Haise started the match in the 3-4-2-1 formation, with Yehvann Diouf in goal, and a defensive line comprising Antoine Mendy, Abdulay Juma Bah, and Kojo Peprah Oppong as centre-backs.

The midfield was formed of Salis Abdul Samed and Charles Vanhoutte as central midfielders, with both Melvin Bard and Jonathan Clauss as wing-backs.

Upfront, Sofiane Diop and Mohamed-Ali Cho played as wingers at times and as advanced playmakers at other times, with Terem Moffi being the team’s main striker.

On the other hand, Roberto De Zerbi relied on a 4-2-3-1 formation with Jeffrey de Lange as a goalkeeper and a defensive line made up of Leonardo Balerdi and Benjamin Pavard as centre-backs, Timothy Weah as a right-back, and Emerson Palmieri as a left-back.

The midfield line was composed of Arthur Vermeeren and Geoffrey Kondogbia as central midfielders with Angel Gomes as the advanced playmaker.

Attacking-wise, Olympique de Marseille’s attacking threats were mainly produced thanks to the efforts of both wingers Mason Greenwood and Igor Paixão, in addition to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was the team’s striker.

OGC Nice Attacking Issues & Weaknesses

OGC Nice had more possession than Olympique de Marseille, with 52.52% for OGC Nice, as well as creating 39 positional attacks with 13 shots compared to only 16 positional attacks with seven shots.

But despite the slight advantage in terms of possession and the higher number of positional attacks, OGC Nice did not exploit their moments of possession effectively, as they were incapable of threatening Olympique de Marseille in a way that led to scoring goals.

They indeed knew how to create some chances and reach the penalty box quite often; however, the final passes and the clinical finishing were not on point in this match.

OGC Nice Final Passing Issues

OGC Nice’s attacking issues are mainly due to a lack of accurate final passes and to precipitation in executing their attacks, especially when they reach the final third.

The lack of passing quality in that area makes it complicated for the attacking players to find themselves in suitable goalscoring situations.

During this match, Moffi, for instance, received final passes in complicated timings, and when he had a few good passes, he either had little time to finish well or was not capable of finishing with the needed accuracy.

The following picture illustrates OGC Nice’s final passing issues and how their attacking players missed a number of opportunities due to their lack of concentration inside the final third.

In this example, Clauss did the complicated part by dribbling past his direct opponent internally to pave the way for himself to provide a through pass to one of the attacking players who were moving well without the ball.

However, failing to do so with the required accuracy obliged OGC Nice to miss a golden goalscoring opportunity, as all of Moffi, Diop, Cho, and Bard could have benefited from this action and converted it into a dangerous chance.

It is important to note that all of them were waiting inside the box while making intelligent movements to receive the ball in perfect conditions.

OGC Nice Finishing Errors

On other created occasions, OGC Nice’s quality of finishing was not good enough to disturb Olympique de Marseille’s defence.

Soon after the above action, Clauss made up for his passing error and was excellent in penetrating from the right wing to reach the final third and serve Moffi with an excellent outside-of-the-foot pass in space.

Moffi was reactive enough and made the right choice of providing a backward pass to Diop since he realised that it would be complicated to score from that angle.

However, Diop was not attentive enough to shoot the ball and not the air and missed the golden pass provided by Moffi and the goalscoring opportunity that could have changed the overall result of this game since a 1-1 draw at that time would have changed a lot of things in this match.

OGC Nice Striker Quality Problem

It is true that Moffi performed well overall, especially in terms of movements with and without the ball and in terms of passing.

However, he lacked clinical finishing when he had goalscoring opportunities and did not deal well with the chances he got, something that contributed in OGC Nice’s loss of the match.

For sure, he is not the only one responsible for the loss, as Diop, Bard, and Clauss made crucial playmaking and/or shooting mistakes that could have made OGC Nice’s performance much different, in addition to the defensive performance, which was very poor as well.

Moffi’s occasion at the 46th minute could have helped OGC Nice stay in the game and strive for the equaliser.

But Moffi received a through pass in space, as the picture shows, but was unable to coordinate his body and shoot with his left foot.

He opted for the easier solution, thinking that his direct marker would intercept the ball in case he puts it to his left and shoots.

Moffi’s wrong calculation of the defender’s potential interception pushed him to precipitate and opt for a right-footed shot that was very weak to beat the goalkeeper.

During such situations, it is crucial to have a striker who knows how to finish such actions inside the net even if he gets disturbed or be obliged to opt for a “weaker” foot shot.

It was not the case for Moffi on this occasion, but working on improving the way he handles such situations would certainly help OGC Nice and himself score more crucial goals per season and, by extension, help his team win more points.

Olympique De Marseille Dangerous Attacking Trio

Olympique de Marseille secured a large win over OGC Nice, mainly thanks to their attacking trio, who were crucial in this match, creating many chances and converting plenty of them.

Their ability to threaten OGC Nice’s defence, especially with their quick attacking transitions, which relied on Greenwood, Paixão, and Aubameyang’s pace, paid off, as OGC Nice’s players were unable to keep up with those quick counter-attacks.

OGC Nice players found themselves in numerical inferiority on many of the created chances from Olympique de Marseille, something that facilitated Les Olympiens’ job.

Olympique De Marseille Set-Piece Efficiency

Olympique de Marseille’s opening goal was scored thanks to Pavard’s intelligent passing header and, more importantly, to Aubameyang’s excellent U-movement to avoid marking and meet the ball on the far post at the perfect timing.

Aubameyang’s agility and speed made the difference during this corner-kick as the OM’s striker confused his marker thanks to his movement without the ball at the moment of executing the corner-kick.

Keeping on alternating their set-pieces plans and using Aubameyang’s abilities in the air and especially his quick movements without the ball the avoid marking would definitely make Olympique de Marseille’s set-pieces even more dangerous on any opponent.

Olympique De Marseille Wingers Switches Of Sides

Olympique de Marseille relied on their weapons on the wings.

Both wingers were agile and excellent in the one vs one duels, and that allowed them to create numerical superiority inside the final third on many occasions.

Furthermore, switching the wingers to different sides created confusion within OGC Nice’s defence, which helped to score the second goal.

The second goal action was born from a quick counterattack that was created thanks to Greenwood’s initial positioning inside the opponent’s half when the ball was intercepted.

Getting the ball and protecting it in that area helped Olympique de Marseille players advance quickly and propose passing options to Greenwood, who passed it to Weah and continued his run towards the final third.

The switch of wingers’ sides allowed Greenwood to surprise the defence as he penetrated internally as soon as he got the ball, instead of going for the easy solution of shooting directly.

It counts for him the fact that he dealt well with the situation despite playing in a position that he is not used to, apart from finishing using his weaker foot with success.

This goal pushed De Zerbi to continue using Greenwood on the left and Paixão on the right wing for the minutes to come, which confirms that this switch of positions was rewarding.

Conclusion

Olympique de Marseille have won one of the most important games of the season with a large score that can only increase the players’ confidence in their abilities to achieve something big this season.

With the attacking trio going through a positive period, De Zerbi will have to exploit this run of form and make sure that it lasts the longer possible in order to win as many games as possible during this coming period.

On the other hand, OGC Nice will have to make several defensive revisions on a collective and on an individual level, as the team conceded many goals due to defensive mistakes in this match.

Furthermore, it will be very important to work on guaranteeing more clinical finishing inside the final third and on improving the quality and the accuracy of the final passes as well.