AJA Score Late to Steal Points From OGC Nice

The contest's first goal came toward the end of the first half in the 37th minute when Evann Guessand gave the edge to Nice. Gaëtan Laborde’s shot was pushed out for a corner, but Guessand headed in the opener. Laborde got a touch at the near post, setting up Guessand, who nodded it home.

In the first half, Nice recorded seven total shots while AJA registered three, but the Guessand goal was the only time either side found the back of the net, with the home side carrying a one-goal advantage into halftime.

Nice was heading toward taking all three points, but toward the end of the match, Auxerre received a lifeline from the opposition.

Melvin Bard was shown a red card after a heavy studs-up tackle from behind on Kévin Danois. The referee didn’t hesitate to pull out the red card and the Nice left-back headed to the locker room for the final minutes.

Franck Haise and his team paid a heavy price for this mistake as AJA leveled the contest one-all in the second half stoppage time.

Auxerre kept pressing, and they managed to equalize. After a deflection from a teammate, Florian Ayé picked up the ball in the box, turned, and fired a powerful shot. Marcin Bułka couldn’t stop it, and AJA leveled the score. 1-1, with Ayé scoring his first goal of the season.

Following the tough result, Bułka spoke to DAZN and shared his thoughts on how the match ended for Nice.

"It’s tough to concede a goal like that at the end of the match. We lost two points because of it. We needed to get that second goal, just like last week. We weren’t efficient enough and had plenty of chances before the red card. If we had scored that second goal, we wouldn’t have had that finish."

The Stat: 11

AJA have earned 11 points from five matches against the current top three teams in Ligue 1 McDonald's this season (three wins, two draws).

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