Nice will welcome FC Koln to Allianz Riviera Stadium for their opening Europa Conference League tie in Group D on Thursday night.
Both side managed to book their places in the group stage of the competition this season through the qualification playoffs with Nice seeing out Maccabi Tel Aviv 3-0 on aggregate, while Koln triumphed 3-2 over Fehervar Szekesfeh in aggregate.
The two have been drawn in Group D where they will also face Partizan and Slovacko in their fight to advance to the knockout stages of the competition. It’s a fairly tough group and every point will count at the end, thus both sides will not want to drop any points in the opening tie.
However Nice have struggling for form recently as they have won just two of their last eight matches across all competitions, while picking up two draws and four defeats in the process. They are coming off a 1-0 home defeat to Monaco in their previous league encounter and will have much to amend before the Thursday’s clash.
Meanwhile Koln are in a much better form as they have now gone unbeaten in their last four matches across all competitions, picking two wins in the run which include the 4-2 Bundesliga success at Wolfsburg last time out at away. They will want to build on it here as they seek a positive start to the Conference League.
Nice vs Koln head to head
This will be the first meeting between the two sides. Take a look at their previous results;
Home
- Nice 0-1 Monaco
- Lille 1-2 Nice
- Nice 0-3 Marseille
- Nice 2-0 Maccabi Tel Aviv
- Clermont Foot 1-0 Nice
Away
- Wolfsburg 2-4 Koln
- Koln 0-0 Stuttgart
- Fehervar Szekesfeh 0-3 Koln
- Frankfurt 1-1 Koln
- Koln 1-2 Fehervar Szekesfeh
Nice team news
Nice have no injury concerns ahead of the clash.
FC Koln team news
Koln will be without Sebastian Andersson, Florian Dietz, Benno Schmitz, Julian Chabot, Mark Uth and Mathias Olesen due to injuries.
Prediction and odds
- Draw
- Both sides to score
- Goals over 1.5
