🏏 Sat, 5 Sep 2026 20:45 CEST
OGC Nice
vs
Le Mans
3-4-2-1 vs 3-1-4-2
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Two points-starved sides meet: both Nice and Le Mans have one point from their opening two matches. Nice sit 17th with a goalless attack (0 scored, 3 conceded, -3 goal difference), while Le Mans are 14th on -1. With Monaco already on nine points from three games at the top, this is a scrap between two clubs desperate for a first win of the campaign.
- Nice's problem is starkly simple: they have not scored yet. A goalless home draw with Lorient on matchday one was followed by a 3-0 defeat away at Paris FC. Claude Puel's side return to their own ground with the single priority of finding a breakthrough, something two matches of football have so far denied them.
- Le Mans are back in the French top flight for the first time in 16 years and have at least been involved in open games. They drew 2-2 at home with Brest before losing 3-2 at Rennes, giving them four goals scored and five conceded. That is the mirror image of a Nice side that has yet to put a single goal on the board.
- This is a back-three duel with different midfield shapes. Le Mans line up 3-1-4-2 with 29-year-old Alexandre Lauray, a Bordeaux academy product at 175cm, screening alone in front of the defence. Nice's 3-4-2-1 puts Sofiane Diop (26, Morocco international, a natural left winger who thrives cutting in on his right foot) and Nathan N'Goumou (26, 182cm) in the two pockets, and how often those two can occupy the space either side of Lauray will decide the shape of the game.
- Nice's right flank belongs to 33-year-old Jonathan Clauss, who climbed from the lower divisions to the France squad, was named in the Ligue 1 team of the season during his Lens years and played at EURO 2024 before arriving via Marseille. His crossing accuracy and running volume will be tested by 22-year-old Rayan Bamba, a Rennes academy graduate who built up experience at Concarneau and Nancy and starts in the Le Mans midfield four.
- Billal Brahimi returns to the club that raised him. The 26-year-old Algerian forward, 183cm and a product of the Nice academy, went on to play Ligue 1 with Brest and Angers before spells at Sint-Truiden and Santos. He is named among the Le Mans substitutes, meaning a homecoming from the bench on the ground where his career began.
- Nice's defensive spine is heavily international. Mohamed Abdelmonem, 27 and 183cm, arrived in 2024 with 35 caps and three goals for Egypt plus league and CAF Champions League titles from his Al Ahly days. Alongside him is Burundi's Youssouf Ndayishimiye, 27, who made 74 appearances for Istanbul Basaksehir before an 11 million euro move in 2023. Behind them stands Senegal goalkeeper Yehvann Diouf, 188cm, who racked up 101 Ligue 1 appearances at Reims.
- The visiting back three mixes height with inexperience. Spanish centre-back Raúl Torrente, 25 and a towering 193cm, is on loan and handles the aerial duels, flanked by 20-year-old academy graduate Noa Boissé and 29-year-old Harold Voyer at 182cm. In reserve is 35-year-old Ivorian Samuel Yohou, 190cm, who has played in Greece with OFI Crete and in France with Paris FC.
- For a team yet to score, Nice's bench offers genuine attacking options. Sweden's Isak Jansson, 24, cost 10 million euros from Rapid Vienna after a season of nine goals and six assists in 33 games, while left-footed 30-year-old Gauthier Hein hit 12 goals and six assists for Metz in 2024-25 to drive their promotion. When Puel turns to those two could shape the whole evening.
- Nice's academy pipeline is on show as well. Seventeen-year-old Djibril Coulibaly, born in 2008 and holding dual French-Malian nationality, starts in central midfield as a ball-winner. On the bench are 19-year-old holding midfielder Everton Pereira, born in Nice with dual French-Brazilian nationality, and 22-year-old Senegal right-back Antoine Mendy, a 187cm one-club man who joined the academy at the age of ten.