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Nice will host Koln at the Allianz Riviera in their UEFA Europa Conference League opener on Thursday.
The home team have endured a slow start to their Ligue 1 campaign this season and have just one win to their name after six games. In their previous league outing, they fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Monaco. They looked sharp in the playoffs against Maccabi Tel-Aviv, recording a 3-0 win on aggregate.
Koln are undefeated in their Bundesliga campaign thus far and returned to winning ways with an impressive 4-2 away win at Wolfsburg. They qualified for the group stage with a 4-2 victory on aggregate over Fehervar in the playoffs.
Nice are back in Europe after one season while this is just their second appearance in a European competition since 1993.
Nice vs Koln Head-to-Head
The two teams have met just twice across all competitions. The two meetings came in the round of 16 tie in the 1973-74 edition of the erstwhile UEFA Cup. Both sides recorded home wins in the two-legged tie, keeping clean sheets in the wins as well.
Nice form guide (all competitions): L-W-L-W-L
Koln form guide (all competitions): W-D-W-D-L
Nice vs Koln Team News
Nice
The home team have no reported absentees for their campaign opener. New signing Ross Barkley has not been included in the squad for this game and remains unavailable.
Injured: None
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Unavailable: Ross Barkley
Koln
Die Geißböcke have some significant absentees for the trip to Nice. Mark Uth, Dimitris Limnios, Julian Chabot and Mathias Olesen are injured and missed the game against Wolfsburg as well. Benno Schmitz is back in training and faces a late fitness test.
Sebastian Andersson underwent a knee surgery last week and faces a long time on the sidelines.
Injured: Mark Uth, Dimitris Limnios, Julian Chabot, Mathias Olesen, Sebastian Andersson
Doubtful: Benno Schmitz
Suspended: None
Unavailable: None
Nice vs Koln Predicted XIs
Nice (3-5-2): Kasper Schmeichel; Jean-Clair Todibo, Dante, Mattia Viti; Melvin Bard, Alexis Beka Beka, Pablo Rosario, Khephren Thuram, Rareș Ilie; Andy Delort, Nicolas Pepe
Koln (4-1-3-2): Marvin Schwabe; Jonas Hector, Timo Hubers, Luca Kilian, Kingsley Schindler; Ellyes Skhiri; Florian Kainz, Ondrej Duda, Dejan Ljubicic; Jan Thielmann, Florian Dietz
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Nice vs Koln Predicted XIs
Les Aiglons have scored just four goals in their six Ligue 1 games but should be able to produce a solid display at home. Koln have scored 10 goals in five Bundesliga games.
Given the current form of the two sides, Nice might struggle here and we are backing the visitors to eke out a narrow win.
Prediction: Nice 1-2 Koln
