Lyon Lead; Nice Have the Nerve to Make Them Look Over Their Shoulder
First meets third on Friday, with Lyon 14 points clear of Nice and both clubs carrying unbeaten league runs into their next Ligue 1 Uber Eats game.
Olympique Lyonnais have the summit; OGC Nice have the awkward habit of beating them.
Lyon have won 22 of 31 league games and are two matches unbeaten since their defeat at Nîmes on 13 April. Nice, meanwhile, have gone six league games without losing, though their latest draw was an extravagant 4-4 with Stade Rennais FC on Saturday. They sit third on 56 points, with Lyon on 70. Nice need a result to keep their pursuit of the leaders alive; Lyon need only remember December, when Robert Poch scored twice.
The likely shapes are familiar: both sides have used a 4-4-2 in each of their last 12 games. Lyon’s expected pair up front, Julio Barone and Franck Ekwalla, arrive in lively form. Barone has seven goals in his last five games; Ekwalla has two goals and three assists in four. Nice have their own threat in Etienne Fritsch, with four goals across his last five, alongside Poch, who scored both goals in the previous meeting.
There are absences to account for. Lyon centre-back Alan Martino is out with a twisted ankle, while forwards David Mândrescu and Aoula Diarra are also injured. Nice’s likely eleven includes three new faces compared with December’s win: Miguel Ángel Cos, Manú Celorico and Gonzalo Giménez. The old Lyon connection is not entirely absent, either: Pablo Galeano spent two seasons at the club before joining Nice.
Lyon have outperformed their expected points, though they also sit first on that measure; Nice are third in the table and fifth on expected points. The arithmetic favours the leaders. The recent meetings, rather less so. Friday offers Lyon a chance to make the gap feel decisive—and Nice an opportunity to keep being inconvenient.