🏏 Sat, 10 Oct 2026 17:15 CEST
Lille OSC
vs
Le Havre AC
4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Lille come into matchday 6 in fourth place on 10 points from five games (3W-1D-1L, +4 goal difference), three behind leaders Monaco on 13. Le Havre are rooted to the bottom in 18th with just two points, still chasing a first win of the season after two draws and three defeats. Eight points separate the sides.
- Recent form tells contrasting stories. Lille's W-D-W-W-L sequence includes a 2-2 home draw with Paris Saint-Germain on matchday 2 and a 2-0 win over Troyes on matchday 4, before a 1-2 loss at Nice ended their run. Le Havre's L-D-L-D-L includes a 1-1 draw away at Lyon and a goalless home stalemate with Angers, followed by a 2-3 defeat at Toulouse.
- The midfield matchup shapes the game: Lille's 4-2-3-1 against Le Havre's 3-4-2-1. Lille pair Nabil Bentaleb (31, CDM), a Lille-born Algeria international raised in Tottenham's academy, with 188cm DR Congo midfielder Ngal'ayel Mukau (21), who scored twice against Bologna in the Champions League. Le Havre pack the middle with the 197cm Mikael Richardsson, PSG academy product Simon Ebonog (22) and Senegal's Rassoul N'Diaye (24).
- Olivier Giroud leads the line for Lille at 40. France's all-time leading scorer with 137 caps and a 2018 World Cup winner who played for Arsenal, Chelsea and Milan, the 193cm striker is built for hold-up play and set-piece threat, and already broke Lille's oldest-scorer record at 38. Le Havre's back three, including the 190cm Touba, must win their share of aerial duels.
- Le Havre start two Japanese players. Ayumu Seko (26) came through Cerezo Osaka's academy and arrived via Grasshopper; a Japan international centre-back, he is equally comfortable screening the defence as a pivot. Sota Nakamura (23, 168cm) joined from Sanfrecce Hiroshima after sweeping the Kanto University League's top-scorer, assist and MVP awards at Meiji University, and brings relentless pressing. Kaito Mizuta (26), forged in Germany's lower divisions, waits on the bench.
- Lille's bench holds Japan international striker Ayase Ueda (28). He scored 22 goals at Cercle Brugge to finish second in the Belgian scoring charts before a club-record transfer to Feyenoord, and now competes with the 40-year-old Giroud for the No.9 role. If the runner-in-behind is introduced, it sets up a duel between two Japan internationals with Seko at the back.
- Ismael Bouneb (20) returns to the club that raised him. The French-Algerian central midfielder came through LOSC Lille's academy before developing at Valenciennes and joining Le Havre, and he reached the final of both the 2023 U17 European Championship and the subsequent U17 World Cup with France. A place on the bench gives him a chance to make his mark at his former home ground.
- Lille's width could decide it. Left-footed right winger Dylan Bakwa (24) racked up 12 goals and 19 assists in 71 games for Strasbourg and has represented France at U21 level, after spells with Bordeaux and Nottingham Forest. On the other flank, Lyon academy graduate Gaetan Perrin (30) won the Ligue 2 title with Auxerre and posted 10 goals and 11 assists in 2024-25 before joining from Krasnodar in February 2026.
- Le Havre have scored only four goals in five matches, and the problem is reflected in the table. Up front, Nigeria international Josh Maja (27) scored 16 goals with six assists in 38 Ligue 2 games for Bordeaux and struck twice on his Premier League debut for Fulham, alongside Tanzania captain Mbwana Samatta (33), a former Belgian league top scorer with Genk. Facing them are Alexsandro (189cm), handed a first Brazil call-up by Carlo Ancelotti in 2025, and Tanguy Nianzou, a graduate of PSG and Bayern who also played in La Liga with Sevilla.
- Lille's substitutes carry pedigree. Captain Benjamin Andre (36, CDM) lifted the 2019 Coupe de France with Rennes by beating PSG in the final. Iceland playmaker Hakon Arnar Haraldsson (23, CAM) helped Copenhagen to three straight Danish Superliga titles before moving in 2023, while Morocco winger Osame Sahraoui (25, LW) cuts in from the left to shoot. Any of the three could change the complexion of the closing stages.