OGC Nice – Olympique Lyonnais: Lyon falter in back-to-back defeats (3-2)

Olympique Lyonnais were looking to go top of the table after Paris Saint-Germain drew with RC Strasbourg Alsace on Friday evening. A victory away to OGC Nice would be enough for Lyon, but they fumbled their chance. Lyon threw everything at a usually leaky Nice defense, but came away licking their wounds. 

Tactical analysis and match report by Nick Hartland.

OGC Nice have had a miserable start to the 2025/26 season, having won twice, drawn twice, and lost seven times across all competitions. The mitigating factor, as mentioned in the club’s curtain raiser against Benfica, has been injuries. At times, it has felt like there has been a curse on Franck Haise’s tenure at the helm of Les Aiglons since he took over ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, with Terem Moffi just the latest to suffer a problem. 

Everything looked as if it was going according to plan in Olympique Lyonnais’s last match before the international break. Les Gones were 1-0 up against Toulouse FC, a winning scoreline that has become emblematic of their start to the campaign (with six of their eight games across all competitions finishing with that scoreline). However, Toulouse would flip the script and deliver a late comeback. 

Haise went with a 3-4-3 shape. Yehvann Diouf was in goal behind . . .