Ligue 1 McDonald's, Matchday 5, 20/09/26
OGC Nice
earned their first win of the season and their first league win at home in almost 11 months as they dispatched a lethargic Lille
OSC side (2-1), who lose for the first time in Ligue 1 under Davide Ancelotti.
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The Match
It was all the way back on 29th October 2025 in this exact fixture that Nice got their last win at the Allianz Riviera in Ligue 1. The match versus Lille represented the penultimate opportunity to go a whole calendar year winless at home. Djibril Coulibaly
almost gave the hosts the lead. He hit the side netting after wriggling his way into the box, and Elye Wahi
twice worked a one-on-one with Berke Ozer
, twice struck straight at the Lille keeper, and twice saw the offside flag raised immediately after.
But despite Basar Onal forcing a save from Yehvann Diouf
, Nice were far the more dangerous and were rewarded when Mohamed Amoura
was played down the side of the LOSC
defence by Niels Nkounkou
. He tried to find Wahi in the middle but his ball across was deflected by Nathan Ngoy
and past Ozer from a tight angle. You couldn't tell that this was a struggling Nice side rooted to the bottom of the table, nor that this was a Lille side that approached this gameweek top of the league and unbeaten.
Le Gym
continued to work openings. Axel Witsel
blasted over unmarked in the box from a cutback and the acres in behind Tiago Santos
continued to be exploited by Amoura, who this time could find Wahi in the box, only for the Ivorian to clip the outside of the box with his first-time effort. LOSC built some momentum towards the end of the half, Ayase Ueda
testing Diouf from close-range with Nice's defenders scrambling and Ethan Mbappé forcing the Senegalese goalkeeper to tip over his free-kick from a tight angle.
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Ueda then got in between Youssouf Ndayishimiye
and Mohamed Abdelmonem
to work Diouf again, but as was the case in the first half, there were spaces left all over the pitch for Nice to exploit. On one such occasion, Wahi failed to control, having been played through by Hein and the former FC Metz
captain was then at fault as another promising transition – a three-on-two – yielded a tepid shot from Hein.
Hein's output was varied throughout, and whilst he wasted two promising openings, he did play in Wahi, who opted to chip Ozer, who simply remained upright to make the simple save. Hein then found Amoura seconds later, and he succeeded where Wahi failed, rounding Ozer and doubling Nice's advantage. The Algerian was forced off with an injury (or cramp) soon after.
In the meantime, Olivier Giroud
had been brought on. Ueda wasn't the man to give way, however, and Ancelotti's choice to keep him on was justified when he drifted beyond the Nice defence and slid the ball beyond Diouf. He almost doubled his tally, but Diouf got down brilliantly to save the Japan international's header. That save proved decisive as Le Gym
held off.
OGC Nice player ratings
Yehvann Diouf – 7
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He has rightly been criticised this season, but it is thanks to him that Nice are off the bottom of the table. His positioning was off for Ueda's goal, but he made the saves he had to make and then the one from Ueda's header that perhaps you wouldn't have expected him to make, certainly not on recent form.
Xavier Mandza – 5
Youssouf Ndayishimiye – 5
Mohamed Abdelmonem – 5
Niels Nkounkou – 6
Djibril Coulibaly – 5
Axel Witsel – 5
Jonathan Clauss
– 5
Gauthier Hein
– 6
A frustrating performance from the former Metz man who delivered two excellent balls, one of which set up a goal, the other of which was squandered by Wahi. But there is such inconsistency in his decision-making and so many other opportunities were squandered and ended with him. These are the types of matches that you would expect him to thrive in, and he did so only to a degree.
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Elye Wahi – 3
You get the feeling that Wahi is best when he has a point to prove. That was the case last season when he joined Nice on loan. He gave off a sense of overconfidence here and you can attribute his missed chances to that.
Mohamed Amoura – 7
Lille player ratings
Berke Ozer – 6
Romain Perraud
– 4
Alexsandro – 4
Nathan Ngoy – 4
Tiago Santos – 3
As always, he had his moments in the attacking third, but it was the space that he left behind him that was his lasting contribution to this game. Particularly in the first half, Amoura and Nkounkou had acres of space to exploit, which they did with varying degrees of success.
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Nabil Bentaleb
– 6
Benjamin André – 4
Basar Onal – 4
Hakon Arnar Haraldsson
– 4
Ethan Mbappé – 5
Ayase Ueda – 6
Whilst he lacked consistent service, he has a very strong sense of positioning and was always in the right spaces to capitalise on loose balls and rare openings. His goal was clinically taken and only a fantastic Diouf save denied him a brace and Lille a point.
GFFN
| Luke Entwistle
– reporting from Nice
