Nice rallies past Brest 2-1 despite missed penalty in 99th minute

Brest had a penalty in the 99th minute to salvage a point that had slipped through its fingers, but Kenny Lala sent his shot straight at the goalkeeper's hands, and Nice escaped the Stade Francis-Le Blé with a 1-2 win. Ludovic Ajorque had put the hosts ahead early with a left-footed strike, but Nice turned the game around in the second half with goals from Elye Wahi and Sofiane Diop, then held on through a frantic stoppage time.

The match, part of Ligue 1, started with Brest jumping ahead early: in the 14th minute, Ajorque finished with his left foot from the center of the box to make it 1-0. Before that goal, both sides had already flashed warning signs, with shots from Alidu Seidu and Bradley Locko missing the target, and Brest went into the break holding the narrow lead.

In the second half, Nice flipped the script. In the 60th minute, following a corner kick, Mohammed Amoura swung in a cross that Elye Wahi poked home from close range with his right foot to tie things up. The game stayed even until the 82nd minute, when Wahi turned provider: he squared the ball to Sofiane Diop, who had been subbed on minutes earlier, and Diop finished low with his right foot, just inside the left post, for the 1-2 that would hold up as the final score.

Brest refused to go quietly. Lucas Tousart headed one over the bar, Gautier Lloris had another shot saved low by the Nice goalkeeper, and finally, deep into stoppage time, came the most dramatic sequence of the match: the referee pointed to the spot for Brest after Isak Jansson fouled Ibrahim Kante inside the box, confirmed by VAR review in the 96th minute. Kenny Lala stepped up in the 99th minute, but his right-footed shot was saved low to the keeper's left, and Nice was able to celebrate the win in the closing minutes.

By the numbers

Brest dominated in terms of overall play and shots on target, but it wasn't enough. Possession was split almost evenly, though the hosts created more clear-cut chances on goal.

According to our expected goals estimate calculated from the match's shots, Brest generated 2.24 xG compared to Nice's 0.84 xG, a wide gap that confirms the hosts were clearly superior in chance creation, even though it didn't translate into the final result.

Before kickoff, our model had projected a 44 percent chance of a Brest win, 28 percent for a draw and 28 percent for a Nice victory, with an estimated total of 2.75 goals. The final score, with three goals total and an away win, defied the most likely outcome, a home victory, on a day when the team that created the most chances ended up losing.

Where it leaves the table

The result leaves Nice in eighth place with 11 points after eight matches played (3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses), while Brest sits in 11th place with 9 points from the same number of matches (2 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses). The gap between the two sides in the standings is just 2 points, a margin that underscores how tightly contested the league has been so far this season.

For Brest, it's a bitter pill to swallow: the team controlled large stretches of play, held the lead and even had a penalty to equalize in stoppage time, yet walked away empty-handed. Nice, on the other hand, weathered the storm and made the most of the two moments that mattered, proof that in this match the scoreline didn't tell the whole story of who created more.