Nice can temporarily close the gap between themselves and Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain when they head to Stade Oceane on Saturday to battle Le Havre.
The Normandy side are 11th in the table, losing 2-1 to Strasbourg last weekend, while Nice are four points back of first place following a 2-1 victory at home to Reims.
Match preview
© Reuters
Another late goal conceded on matchday 15 spoiled what was a relatively solid performance by Le Havre, stretching their winless run to four matches in this competition.
Les Ciel et Marine have conceded in the 89th minute or later in consecutive Ligue 1 affairs, though they have also scored three goals in the 90th minute or beyond this season.
Rarely have we seen them show much quality in the attacking third in their first season back in the top flight, scoring the second-fewest goals to this stage of the domestic campaign (13), including just one in their last four contests.
Le Havre have triumphed only once in their previous nine top-flight encounters (2-1 over Toulouse) but have never lost three successive games in all competitions under Luka Elsner, a streak in jeopardy this weekend.
Two of their three domestic victories have occurred at Stade Oceane, though they have not found the back of the net in their last four home fixtures.
Saturday will be the first time they battle Nice in a Ligue 1 fixture since the 2008-09 campaign, with Le Havre winning more matches against the Southern French side (19) than any other in the top-flight.
© Reuters
After their title aspirations suffered a minor setback at Nantes (1-0 defeat), Les Aiglons got back on track last Sunday, scoring multiple times for just the fourth time domestically this season.
With 32 points in 15 Ligue 1 fixtures thus far, it is their second-best start to a top-flight campaign counting three points for a win, just three fewer than they had at this same stage of the 2016-17 season.
Nice have not lost any of their previous eight matches played against newly promoted sides, conceding a mere three goals over that stretch.
Francesco Farioli's men have conceded as many goals this month (three) as they had in their 12 previous domestic encounters combined.
Their 16 goals scored to this stage of the campaign are the second-fewest among teams currently in the top half of the table, with Le Gym failing to find the back of the net away from home since late October (1-0 victory at Clermont).
Les Aiglons have never beaten Le club doyen at Stade Oceane and have not triumphed in Normandy against Le Havre since winning 2-1 on matchday five of the 1985-86 season, when this competition was known as Division 1.
Team News
© Reuters
Mathieu Gorgelin will not return to the Le Havre lineup until at least late December as he recovers from an ankle injury.
Yoann Salmier had their only strike in the loss to Strasbourg last weekend, his first of the campaign, with Arthur Desmas conceding multiple goals for a second successive encounter.
Nabil Alioui leads them with four goals in this competition but has yet to score since matchday six when he and Mohamed Bayo found the mark in a 2-1 triumph over Clermont.
Youcef Atal must serve another match suspension for Nice after posting an anti-Semitic message online, Sofiane Diop is unavailable with a broken toe and Khephren Thuram is dealing with a knee injury.
Gaetan Laborde and Jeremie Boga notched their fourth domestic campaign goals last weekend, moving them to within one of Terem Moffi for the team lead.
Marcin Bulka, who leads Ligue 1 with 10 clean sheets, has conceded in consecutive games after failing to allow one in eight successive encounters.
Le Havre possible starting lineup:
Desmas; Sangante, Kinkoue, Salmier, Operi; Toure; Nego, Kuzyayev, Kechta, Ayew; Alioui
Nice possible starting lineup:
Bulka; Lotomba, Todibo, Dante, Bard; Rosario, Ndayishimiye, Boudaoui; Moffi, Laborde, Boga
We say: Le Havre 0-0 Nice
Both sides tend to focus on defence first, and they each have the personnel to frustrate the opposition, so we expect to see a rather cagey affair on Saturday.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Joel Lefevre
