2026/2027 season

Ligue 1

Team page
Ligue 1 · Team page
OGC Nice
Head coach: Olivier Pantaloni · Non confirmé précisément
Rank
11th
Pts
8
P
6
Form
🟡 Average

The essentials at a glance

The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.

Editors' ratings
2/10
Attack
7/10
Defence
5/10
Form
4/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:High

11th with 8 pts from 6 matches: 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 defeats.

5 goals scored, 7 conceded.

For this seventh day of Ligue 1, Olympique Lyonnais receives the GOC Nice on Sunday (20:45). After a major victory in the Europa League against Crystal Palace, OL will face Niçois launched on a good series. Find here all the information about the meeting.

L'Équipe · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

For the third time of the season, Paulo Fonseca, OL's coach, is going to start his eleven with at least eight changes, for the coming of Nice (Sunday, 8:45 p.m.). In order to gain in freshness but also to concern all its staff.

L'Équipe · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

On the eve of facing the Nice GOC in Ligue 1, Paulo Fonseca announced a wide rotation within its staff. The OL coach intends to preserve the physical freshness of his players, while (...)

Foot Mercato · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

On the eve of the shock between OL and Nice, Paulo Fonseca reacted strongly to the Gym's statements concerning arbitration. This Saturday, at a press conference, the Lyon coach denounced a (...)

Foot Mercato · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.

Latest matches
Wvs RC Strasbourg Alsace (H) · 2-1
Wvs Lille OSC (H) · 2-1
Lvs AJ Auxerre (A) · 0-1
Dvs Le Mans FC (H) · 1-1
Lvs Paris FC (A) · 0-3
WWDDLL
5 scored / 7 conceded over 6 matches played
Rest: 7 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days
Home form
2W - 2D - 0L
Away form
0W - 0D - 2L
Statistics

Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.

Goals scored per match
1.0
Goals conceded per match
1.4
At home
5 scored · 3 conceded in 3 matches
Away
0 scored · 4 conceded in 2 matches
Over 2.5 goals
3 of 5
Both teams score
3 of 5
Clean sheets
0 of 5
Failed to score
2 of 5
Cumulative points vs league average

Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.

How OGC Nice play

System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.

Playing identity
Preferred system
Non confirmé précisément
Philosophy
A return to his roots for Pantaloni (who came through the club as a player), recapturing a “state of mind” in his own words.
Attacking strengths
No goals scored in the 1st match.
Defensive solidity
Clean sheet in this first test.
Pressing
Not precisely documented.
Transitions
Not precisely documented.
StrengthA warm welcome from supporters (nearly 500 present at the open training session before the start of the season).
WeaknessLack of attacking efficiency to be confirmed.

The mood around the club, and who is missing

Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.

Mood
Squad confidence
The 3-0 conceded at Paris FC confirmed that a squad rebuilt to this extent cannot be competitive straight away. Two major additions, Niels Nkounkou and Mohamed Amoura, in fact only took their first team sessions on 2 September, three days before Le Mans's visit. Melvin Bard's departure on loan to Leeds after five seasons also deprives the dressing room of a reference point and an occasional captain. The week nonetheless carries a weight beyond football, with the tribute marking ten years since 14 July 2016.
Coach / players / board relationship
Olivier Pantaloni continues to enjoy the credit of a former player returning home, in a context of total rebuilding. The staff has been widened with the return of Frédéric Gioria as assistant, another figure from the Gym's recent history. The sporting department, led by Roger Ricort, takes a line of patience, including for young players such as Ismaël Koné, of whom president Cohen says he must be “given time”. The club is therefore communicating about a medium-term project rather than an immediate result.
Mood with the supporters
The week is above all one of remembrance: the club has invited the families and relatives of the 86 victims of 14 July 2016 as well as the first responders to a ceremony on the pitch before Nice v Le Mans. The 86th-minute ritual, since adopted in French and European stadiums, will again be observed with the lights turned on in the stands. The third kit, gold with 86 stars, is already on sale and the shirts worn will be auctioned for the victims' associations. After the away ban in Paris, this fixture at the Allianz Riviera should give the Gym a popular foundation again.
Pressure on the head coach
It remains low despite the heavy defeat at Paris FC. Pantaloni inherited a squad reshaped up to the last day and two attacking signings to integrate mid-season. The club has built its communications around remembrance and rebuilding, not around an imperative of immediate results. Another poor result at home on Saturday would nonetheless change the tone.
Club objectives
Restoring identity and stability to a club coming out of a difficult 2025-2026 season, while absorbing thirteen departures. Recruitment mixes experienced loans (Amoura, Wahi, Nkounkou) with gambles on youth, with Nice-born Ismaël Koné, 18, integrated into the Elite squad. The women's team has also been rebuilt, with five arrivals. The immediate sporting priority is simply to score: the Gym have yet to find the net this season.
Recent internal tensions
No internal tension reported. The mood remains marked by the aftermath of the ban on Nice supporters travelling to Paris and by the gravity of the week's commemorative context.
Absences
InjuredLaurent Abergel — Having suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in pre-season, he was operated on and his absence is estimated at six months.

Before kick-off

What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.

Next match

Olympique Lyonnais — OGC Nice

AwaySunday 18 October at 20:45Matchday 7
It's today. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.

Prediction, odds and form of both teams →

What the press says
Prediction
EstimateOlympique Lyonnais — OGC Nice
62 %
1 · Olympique Lyonnais
23 %
X · draw
15 %
2 · OGC Nice
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 6 matches played by Olympique Lyonnais, 6 matches by OGC Nice. Confidence: medium
The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures
  1. League average. 170 goals scored over 116 team-matches played (18 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.47 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
  2. Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
    TeamGoalsRawKept
    Olympique Lyonnais — attack11 in 6 matches1.251.13
    Olympique Lyonnais — defence4 in 6 matches0.450.73
    OGC Nice — attack5 in 6 matches0.570.78
    OGC Nice — defence7 in 6 matches0.800.90
    The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.50 for Olympique Lyonnais and 0.50 for OGC Nice. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
  3. Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.61 goal scored on average by the host against 1.30 by the visitor, over the 46 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 1.24; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.42, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.10. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
  4. Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
    Olympique Lyonnais at home: 2.33 pts/match versus 1.83 overall over 3 matches → ×1.074
    OGC Nice away: 0.00 pts/match versus 1.33 overall over 2 matches → ×0.880
  5. Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
    λOlympique Lyonnais = 1.47 × 1.13 × 0.90 × 1.10 × 1.074 = 1.74
    λOGC Nice = 1.47 × 0.78 × 0.73 × 0.880 = 0.74
  6. Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 61.5%, draw 23.1%, away win 15.4% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-0 (only 14.6%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).
Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.
  • It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
  • The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
  • γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
  • The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
  • No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.
What other sources say
No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.
This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.

The full squad

The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.

Goalkeepers
  • Yéhvann Diouf
  • Martin Ponsot
  • Teddy Boulhendi
Defenders
  • Ali Abdi
  • Mohamed Abdelmonem
  • Melvin Bard
  • Antoine Mendy
  • Brad-Hamilton Mantsounga
  • Youssouf Ndayishimiye
  • Moïse Bombito
  • Hamza Koutoune
  • Jonathan ClaussC
Midfielders
  • Hicham Boudaoui
  • Gauthier Hein
  • Morgan Sanson
  • Laurent Abergel
  • Issiaga Camara
  • Axel Witsel
  • Nassim Laarej
  • Junior Mandza
  • Djibril Coulibaly
  • Everton
  • Salis Abdul Samed
Forwards
  • Sofiane Diop
  • Elye Wahi
  • Victor Orakpo
  • Isak Jansson
  • Nathan Ngoumou
  • Zoumana Diallo
Squad last verified on 30 Aug 2026 — source: ogcnice.com (official website); captain confirmed by footmercato.net (20/08/2026).

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss18 Oct 2026
Lyon Nice: Which TV channel and when to watch Ligue 1 live?
Source: RMC Sport
rss17 Oct 2026
OL-Nice: We must trust our referees, Fonseca points out
Source: RMC Sport — Ligue 1
rss18 Oct 2026
Nice: Jonathan Clauss still targets Team France
Source: Foot Mercato
rss18 Oct 2026
Long live the turnover at OL: for the Nice reception, Paulo Fonseca should make at least eight changes from the Europa League match
Source: L'Équipe
rss17 Oct 2026
OL: Paulo Fonseca announces several changes against Nice GOC
Source: Foot Mercato
rss17 Oct 2026
OL: Paulo Fonseca casts the complaints of the Nice GOC on arbitration
Source: Foot Mercato
Club3 Sep 2026
Before Nice v Le Mans, on Saturday 5 September at 20:45 at the Allianz Riviera, the club will hold a ceremony of remembrance on the pitch for the tenth anniversary of the attack of 14 July 2016, in the presence of the families and relatives of the 86 victims as well as the first responders; in the 86th minute, the “Victims' Heart” will appear on the big screens and the lights in the stands will be turned on.
Source: Site officiel de l'OGC Nice
Club2 Sep 2026
The Gym have unveiled a third kit entirely in gold, decorated with 86 stars tracing the curve of the Baie des Anges and the date “14 juillet 2016” under the collar; it will be worn for the first time against Le Mans and the players' shirts will be auctioned online in aid of the victims' associations.
Source: Site officiel de l'OGC Nice
Club2 Sep 2026
Niels Nkounkou and Mohamed Amoura, confirmed at the very start of the week, took their first sessions with the Nice squad and met their new team-mates.
Source: Site officiel de l'OGC Nice
Club2 Sep 2026
The club recalled that Frédéric Gioria, a former midfielder, captain and head coach of the Gym, returned to the staff this summer as an assistant, and included in its birthday messages president Rivère, active in social causes through the club's endowment fund, as well as Claude Puel, one of the five longest-serving head coaches in the red and black dugout with 196 matches.
Source: Site officiel de l'OGC Nice
Transfers2 Sep 2026
Mohamed Amoura has been loaned to Nice by Wolfsburg with a purchase option set at €20m, in a summer also marked by the arrivals of Elye Wahi on loan with an option and Axel Witsel on a free.
Source: Nice Premium
Transfers1 Sep 2026
Melvin Bard, who arrived from Lyon in 2021 and captained the side at times, has been loaned to Leeds United with a purchase option after five seasons and two Coupe de France finals at the Stade de France.
Source: Site officiel de l'OGC Nice
Transfers1 Sep 2026
Box-to-box midfielder Ismaël Koné, 18 and Nice-born, has joined the Elite squad from the Jean-Marc Guillou academy; sporting director Roger Ricort describes him as “a complete midfielder” and president Cohen stresses the need to “give him time”.
Source: Site officiel de l'OGC Nice
Transfers1 Sep 2026
Niels Nkounkou and Abdelhak Ben Idder were confirmed on the last day of the summer window.
Source: Orange Sport
Result30 Aug 2026
OGC Nice were swept aside 3-0 at Paris FC on matchday 2, through goals from Sinayoko, Chergui and Marchetti.
Source: Eurofootnews
Supporters29 Aug 2026
Nice supporters have been banned from travelling to Paris for the match against Paris FC, by order of the authorities.
Source: Site officiel du club (OGC Nice)
News last verified on 18 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.
Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.