In the top match of Ligue 1 between Monaco and Nice (0:1), Marcin Bulka and Folarin Balogun were in focus. For one it was a perfect evening, for the other everything went wrong.
AS Monaco had stumbled recently against Lorient (2:2), but had also greeted from the top of the table before matchday 6 in Ligue 1. Now the previous third-placed team, OGC Nice, travelled to the Principality with a win against PSG behind them – a match that was not to be expected on a daily basis.
Early in the game, Golovin, who had broken through, passed the visitors’ keeper Bulka and was minimally touched by the latter’s defender Lotomba. A penalty kick was awarded for the fall – which centre-forward Balogun missed. Bulka held the penalty, which was shot hard and flat, but imprecisely (12th).
Shortly before the half-time whistle, it became clear that it was not going to be Folarin Balogun’s day. From an acute angle he only hit the post with his head (45.+4).
Once again powerful, once again low, only more central than the first
But it was to get worse: After Minamino was rudely brought down by Sanson in the sixteen, the former Arsenal striker Balogun stepped up again from the spot – and actually failed again to beat Bulka (55.). Again powerful, again low, only more central than the first attempt was the second.
The 22-year-old’s unsuccessful day at work was soon over when his coach Adi Hütter substituted him for Ben Yedder. The visitors sensed that the omens were favourable and hit the crossbar with a header from Ndayishimiye (77th). And then what had to happen happened: in the first minute of stoppage time, substitute newcomer Boga went on a huge solo and finished magnificently for the winning goal for Nice in the top match.
This saw OGC leapfrog AS Monaco in the table and can call themselves top of the French league for at least one night.
