Valere Germain has scored against his parent club to give Nice a half-time lead against Monaco at the Allianz Riviera.
Leonardo Jardim's side got off to the worst possible start as Germain, on loan at Nice from Monaco, gave the hosts a seventh-minute lead as he got ahead of Fabinho and tucked his first-time effort past helpless Danijel Subasic.
Monaco struggled to assert themselves on Les Aiglons, having failed to register a shot on target within the opening quarter of the game.
Indeed, Les Rouges et Blancs almost fell further behind when Alassane Plea's strike from distance was inches away from nestling in the back of the net.
Jardim decided to shake things up by taking off Mario Pasalic on 25 minutes, with little sign of an injury to the Chelsea loanee as he was replaced by Bernardo Silva.
Silva then came close to providing his team with an equalising goal, but his low header from Anthony Martial's cross was wide of the mark.
Monaco continued to forge change before the interval, with Layvin Kurzawa also heading wide from Joao Moutinho's delivery.
Four minutes before half time, Jardim made his second change, bringing new signing Stephan El Shaarawy into the fold at the expense of the seemingly uninjured Nabil Dirar.
Moments later, Nice were reduced to 10 men when teenager Olivier Boscagli was given a second yellow card.
Chris O'Keefe
