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Captain Gennaro Bracigliano was the star for 10-man Nancy as the home side held out for a scoreless draw against Nice at the Stade Marcel Picot on Sunday.
Nancy and Nice came into the match locked in 12th and 13th place on the ladder with 16 points apiece and by the end of ninety minutes the places remained unchanged as they both moved to within a point of Marseille in 11th.
The early exchanges between these two evenly-matched side's began with plenty of energy, but were laced with a palpable mutual respect and the referee, Mr Duhamel, left his whistle in his pocket for an almost unprecedented foul-free opening 10 minutes.
Pablo Correa's men slowly gailed the upper hand, illustrated by Frédéric Biancalani's vicious free-kick and Andre Luiz's poorly directed header.
However the Lorraine-based side's hopes of trasforming their pressure into goals took a blow when Cédric Lécluse was given his marching orders minutes before the break for two fouls in two minutes on Nice live-wire Bakary Koné.
After the break Nice began to benefit from their numerical advantage and only three world-class saves from Bracigliani denied Frédéric Antonetti's side climbing into the top half of the table.
The Nancy 'keeper, more or less abandoned by his defence, firstly denied Florent Balmont on 57 minutes and then Mamadou Bagayoko, ten minutes later.
Bracigliani then ensured a share of the points with a brilliant stop from Sébastian Roudet's shot with just five minutes remaining.
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