Nice-Lille is a match from the first day of Ligue 1 and is played Friday at 9pm: stats, probable formations, predictions.
Ligue 1 2023-24 starts again with the advance between Nice and Lille, two of the most ambitious teams in the edition of the French top league that is preparing to open its doors.
In their sights is, needless to say, qualification for Europe’s most prestigious competition, the Champions League, missed by both last year. The Rossoneri must try to turn over a new leaf after a far from exciting season, which ended with an anonymous ninth place and will not allow them to measure themselves on the continental stage. Nice, despite heavy investment by the club, paid dearly for a disastrous first part of the season, to say the least. The change on the bench between Lucien Favre and newcomer Didier Digard had the hoped-for effects-the interim coach since January has lost only 5 out of 25 games, bringing Les Aiglons back to the left side of the standings-but it was not enough for the former captain to be reappointed.
Nice starts again with enfant prodige Farioli
The club has in fact given him the boot, enlisting young Italian coach Francesco Farioli, former goalkeeping coach of Roberto De Zerbi’s Sassuolo.
Haraldsson
Farioli is just 34 years old, yet on his resume he can already boast two experiences in Turkey on the benches of Karagumruk and Alanyaspor, and now he hopes to establish himself in France as well, focusing on his innovative philosophy. At the helm of Lille, on the other hand, there is still Paulo Fonseca, confirmed despite a fifth-place finish that made more than one nose twitch in the Dogues environment. The men coached by the former Roma coach in two weeks’ time will have to face the play-off for access to the Conference League group stage with the winner of the double-header between B36 Torshavn and Rijeka, in the hope that their goal scorer Jonathan David – at the center of several market rumors – will still wear the red and blue jersey. Lille has already lost star son Timothy Weah, who ended up at Juventus, but in return has acquired Umtiti, Malouda, Tiago Santos, Olmeta and Haraldsson. Lots of movement for Nice as well, which in addition to former Lorient Moffi can also count on Jeremie Boga, who arrived from Atalanta. Always on the starting foot, however, Khephren Thuram.
The Prediction
Lille’s Achilles’ heel last season was the away games, a trend that has seemed to continue in recent friendlies: after three consecutive home victories (Dunkirk, Cercle Brugge and Le Havre) the Dogues lost at home to Empoli and did not go beyond a blank-net draw with Brentford. It will by no means be easy to rout the Allianz Riviera, a field that Lille has only conquered once in the last ten years. Likely, however, they will score at least one goal against a Nice side that has struggled to keep its goal unbeaten in the preseason.
The likely lineups for Nice-Lille
- NICE (4-3-3): Bulka; Atal, Todibo, Dante, Bard; Ndayishimiye, Sanson, Thuram; Laborde, Moffi, Boga.
- LILLE (4-3-3): Chevalier; Tiago Santos, Gundmundsson, Umtiti, Ismaily; Angel Gomes, André, Cabella; Ounas, David, Haraldson.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-1
