Europa League | League Stage

Dec 12, 2024 at 5.45pm UK

Stade Joseph Marien

Union SGvs.Nice

Match preview

After five matches, Nice has only two points and is currently in 35th place in the Europa League table, with Dynamo Kyiv, who have not yet scored any points, below them at this stage.

A home defeat to Rangers on matchday five saw Haise's side drop below Ludogorets and RFS on goal difference. Another poor result here could see them go bottom.

Only Qarabag have conceded more goals than Nice's 12 so far in the league phase, so it's no surprise that they've spent the longest amount of time trailing in the Europa League so far (69%), conceding the first goal in all five matches.

The team's away form is pretty poor, with just one win from their last seven games on the road across all competitions. However, they did recover from back-to-back 4-1 defeats at the weekend.

OGC beat struggling Le Havre 2-1 on home turf, but that was just their fourth win in 14 games since they beat Saint-Etienne 8-0 in September. That result seemed to kickstart a very promising season at the time.

Nice have only faced one previous Belgian opponent, and that was Zulte-Waregem in this competition seven years ago. They won both games by a combined score of 8-2, so they'll need to do at least that to get back into contention for finishing in the top 24.

It's not helping that opponents Union SG are on a great run, even if they were held to a draw by 10-man Cercle Brugge over the weekend.

That still extended Union's unbeaten run to nine games, which has been a season of two halves so far for Sebastian Pocognoli's team.

Union didn't score for 450 minutes earlier in the season. They didn't score in the European match until the 77th minute of matchday four, when Kevin Mac Allister earned them a draw against Roma.

The Belgian side had only managed to pick up one point from their first three games against teams they should have beaten, against Fenerbahce, Bodo/Glimt and Midtjylland. But while they missed out on those opportunities to give themselves a good chance of reaching the knockout stages, the 1-0 win over Twente on matchday five has certainly put them in contention.

Union are currently placed 24th going into matchday six. If they want to stay there at the end of the league phase, they'll probably need to win two more games. It's going to be a tricky finish, with Braga and Rangers to come in January.

If Union wins this week, it'll be the second time they've won two European games in a row. They've had success against French clubs before.

Even though they're still pretty green at this level, they managed to hold Toulouse to two draws in last season's Europa League. And back in the 1960s, they also knocked Marseille out of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

Recent Performance

Union SG Europa League form:LDLDW

Union SG form (all competitions):DWDWWD

Nice Europa League form:DLLDL

Nice form (all competitions):DDWLLW

Team News

Union have to do without Henok Teklab for the time being as he's broken his leg, but Guillaume Francois, Alessio Castro-Montes and Mamadou Traore are all in the frame to return from recent minor setbacks.

Koki Machida was suspended for the 0-0 draw with Cercle Brugge, but he'll be back in action here and should be in the starting XI.

Nice will also have Moise Bombet and Sofiane Diop back in action after they sat out the defeat to Rangers with European bans. Their returns are really important given the long injury list Haise is facing at the moment.

Mohamed Abdelmonem will be hoping to recover from illness, with other capable defenders Dante and Youssouf Ndayishimiye missing, while Jonathan Clauss, Ali Abdi and Melvin Bard are all absent at full-back.

Another recent casualty is Mohamed-Ali Cho, who suffered a hamstring injury at the start of the month. He's joined by fellow attacker and long-term absentee Terem Moffi on the sidelines.

Morgan Sanson, Antoine Mendy (both ankle) and Victor Orakpo (hernia) round off the eye-watering injury list Haise has to deal with ahead of this trip across the border.

Possible starting lineup

Union SG possible starting lineup:

Moris; Khalaili, Mac Allister, Burgess, Sykes, Machida; Fuseini, Sadiki, Vanhoutte, Boufal; David

Nice possible starting lineup:

Bulka; Louchet, Rosario, Bombito, Nandjou; Boudaoui, Ndombele; Bouanani, Guessand, Boga; Laborde