Five-star Eduardo smashes Guingamp

Carlos Eduardo scored five times as Nice moved up to seventh in Ligue 1 with a staggering 7-2 victory at rock-bottom Guingamp.Claudio Beauvue headed Guingamp into an early lead but that was as good as it got for the hosts as Eduardo's first-half hat-trick and Alassane Plea's goal on the stroke of half-time put Nice in charge.Eduardo bagged another two after the interval, while Eric Bautheac scored the away side's seventh shortly after Ronnie Schwartz had pulled one back for Guingamp, who were brought back down to earth following last week's surprise 2-1 win at Lille.In a pulsating start to the game, they raced into a seventh minute lead only to be pegged back within minutes by their visitors.Firstly, Moustapha Yatabare picked out Beauvue to head EAG ahead before, just three minutes later, Eduardo took charge of a 20-yard free-kick and dispatched a stunning finish beyond Jonas Lossl to level matters.And, with 25 minutes gone, the former Porto midfielder added his second of the game.Plea fashioned space down the right before picking out Didier Digard, who teed up Carlos Eduardo to finish confidently beyond Lossl from close range.The Brazilian thought he had grabbed a first-half triple when Plea played him through on goal only for Lossl to save magnificently but that third goal came just moments later.With two minutes to play until the interval, Plea was once again involved and he picked Bautheac whose delivery from the left found Carlos Eduardo at the back post to became the first Nice player to score a hat-trick in more than 10 years.The visitors had not finished there either and, deep in first-half stoppage time, they rounded off an incredible opening 45 minutes.A huge error by Lossl in the Guingamp goal, who completely missed his clearance from a long ball, gifted the impressive Plea with an open goal and after beating Christophe Kerbrat he rolled the ball home to hand Nice an seemingly unassailable 4-1 lead.Not content with such an advantage, the visitors picked up where they left off at the break and added a fifth just a few minutes after the restart.Yet again Plea was heavily involved, and after latching on to a Claude Puel pass, he pulled the ball back for Eduardo, who continued his hot streak in front of goal to add his fourth from 12 yards out.Unsurprisingly, Nice continued to sniff out their opponents and following some good pressing in midfield they punished Guingamp again on 64 minutes.Eduardo picked up in midfield and played a one-two with Vercauteren before escaping the Guingamp defence and firing beyond the hapless Lossl for a sixth Nice goal.EAG managed a consolation when Schwartz scored from 12 yards out with a confident finish after Beauvue picked him out but Lossl was soon picking the ball out of the back of the net once again at the other end.Some more superb play from Plea set up Bautheac, who had the freedom of the hosts penalty are and made full use of his chance to send the ball beyond Lossl and wrap up a stunning away win for Nice.