This time, OGC Nice has no choice: they must win this Friday night in an empty Allianz Riviera against AS Saint-Étienne to keep their place in Ligue 1. After a disappointing first leg, the Gym was not able to take the lead and had to settle for a sad draw (0-0). Nothing is yet decided in this playoff and everything remains to be done. All the information about the pre-match for this encounter is to be discovered here.
The match of last chance. In ninety minutes and some seconds, we will finally have the answer about the future of OGC Nice. After a nightmarish year for the Eagles, the Gym has its last match of the season to salvage things and avoid an almost historic relegation on the Côte d’Azur. Nine months ago, the Nice players were two matches away from playing in the Champions League. That bygone time now seems very far away. The difficult Nice reconstruction must go through acquiring survival, though unexpected by the red and black supporters in recent weeks. Although they may have been criticized and blamed in recent months, Sofiane Diop and his teammates have one last mission to accomplish before moving on. With what little self-respect they have left, they have the obligation to keep Nice in Ligue 1, the tree that will hide the forest of a completely failed season on the Azure Coast.
To do so, they will have to defeat ASSE (kickoff Friday at 8:45 PM), in an Allianz Riviera that will echo hollow. The OGC Nice stadium will be closed to the public, following sanctions from the LFP. This followed post-match disturbances against Metz (0-0), where several hundred Gym supporters, unhappy with the club’s sporting situation, invaded the pitch at the final whistle. The Eagles lose the support of a precious advantage.
On the pitch, they will also need to do better with the ball than in the first leg of this playoff. If Claude Puel thought his team “remained cohesive and very solid defensively,” the OGC Nice coach admitted the lack of solutions and movement in his attacking sector. “On the other hand, with the ball, we will have to do much better,” he said. One stat particularly illustrates the Eagles’ difficulties on the Geoffroy-Guichard pitch. In the Greens’ hell, Jonathan Clauss’s teammates shot only four times at the Saint-Étienne goal, for no shots on target.
Wahi returns, Boudaoui out, Ali Abdi left the group
To revitalize a struggling attacking sector, what better than the return of the star player? Suspended in the first leg after accumulating cards, Elye Wahi will be back for this second leg. Expectations around the Ivorian international are high, but legitimate. Because since his arrival at the club in January, there is a OGC Nice with and without Wahi. The Nice striker could take advantage of the many spaces and generosity of Saint-Étienne’s defense. A reinforcement that has become crucial for the Gym!
On the other hand, the Gym staff will not be able to count on their right-back, Ali Abdi. Called up by Tunisia for the 2026 World Cup preparation camp in the United States, the 32-year-old player left the Nice group under pressure from the Carthage Eagles. The player, under contract until 2027, will be sanctioned by the club upon his return, as FIFA regulations allow. The reason: the Tunisian national team announced its list late compared to scheduled dates (at least 15 days before May 25, editor’s note). This theoretically left the possibility for the club to block its player if needed. For now, the nature of the sanction is not known. In any case, the renegotiation of the contract between OGC Nice and the player should be more tense than expected.
For the rest, Claude Puel should be able to count on nearly all his forces. Physical freshness should be an important parameter when choosing his starting eleven. Only Hicham Boudaoui was added to the list of absentees on the OGC Nice side. A starter in the first leg, the midfielder had to quickly give up his place, almost knocked out after taking a shoulder blow to the face. The concussion protocol does not allow him to play another match three days after the shock suffered. The Algerian international is therefore on forced rest.
Probable lineups:
OGC Nice: Diouf – Clauss, Mendy, Bah (or Dante), Oppong, Bard – Sanson (C), Vanhoutte (or Coulibaly) – Cho, Wahi, Diop
ASSE: Larsonneur (C) – Pedro, Le Cardinal, Bernauer, Ferreira – Kanté, Gadegbeku – Cardona, Boakye, Davitashvili – Stassin
