MONACO ADD TO NICE’S WOES

Monaco produced a dominant attacking display to beat Nice 3-0 on Tuesday night, goals from James Rodriguez, Emmanuel Rivière and Lucas Ocampos condemning Les Aiglons to a sixth-straight defeat.

OGC Nice 0 - 2 AS Monaco FC

With a thigh injury to club top scorer Radamel Falcao arriving after a mini-form slump for the principality club, Monaco's trip to struggling Nice on Tuesday night was the perfect forum for Claudio Ranieri's men to prove they have the strength-in-depth in their squad to keep pace with Lille and PSG, and that's exactly what they did at the Allianz Riviera.



Rodrigues gets the ball rolling

Colombian international James Rodriguez has taken some time to settle in Ligue since his summer move from Porto, but after scoring his maiden Ligue 1 goal last week with a superb free-kick, he picked up where he left off by scoring an early opener with a deft angled shot (5').Nice have had their own injury worries to overcome - most notably that of Colombian superstar 'keeper David Ospina (knee) - and his replacement Luca Veronese has had a torrid time of it, shipping seven goals in Nice's last three matches.

Rivière, Martial combine

Veronese didn't have long to wait before he was once again picking the ball out of his net, this time thanks to Emmanuel Rivière. Set up by some fine work from Falcao's replacement Anthony Martial - who, at 17, became the youngest player to score this season when marked his first full start with a goal last week - Rivière seemed to hang in the air as he produced a looping angled header that left Veronese no chance (23').Nice had no answers for the pace, vision and passing of the excellent Rodriguez, who was at the heart of all Monaco's moves going forward (86 per cent successful passes and six shots on goal). However, Claude Puel's men - who slip to 15^th after sitting as high as sixth in Week 10 - are known for their fighting spirit and carved out some chances of their own.Club top scorer Dario Cvitanich drew a sharp save from Danijel Subasic with a shot on the turn as he looked to reply quickly to Rivière's goal (26'), and former Lille and PSG man Mathieu Bodmer headed just wide early in the second term (46').

Ocampos caps it off

Other than that though, it was more or less one-way traffic for a Monaco side whose pressing, tough tackling and slick passing and movement kept Nice with mainly defensive tasks on their minds. In fact, Monaco should perhaps have made more of their chances, with only one of their clear-cut second-half chances - Rodriguez's stinging shot after Martial had sliced through the Nice defence (67') - requiring Veronese to save.Their other chances were narrowly off-target, but there was no lack of killer instinct shown by Ocampos when Bodmer over-cooked his touch on the edge of his own area. The Argentine teenager pounced in lightning fashion, dispossessing Bodmer easily and the rounding Veronese with a step-over combination before hammering home to round out the scoring in the 3-0 win.

MONACO ADD TO NICE’S WOES