Preview

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Sports Mole previews Thursday's Europa Conference League clash between Nice and FC Koln, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Nice host FC Koln in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.

This will be both teams' first matches at the group stage of this competition, which only began as an entity last season.

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Match preview

After losing the Riviera derby at home to Monaco on Sunday in a narrow 1-0 defeat, Nice will be looking to bounce back when they take on Koln on Thursday.

Lucien Favre has endured a poor start upon his return to the club that he spent two successful seasons with between 2016 and 2018, only taking five points from six Ligue 1 matches to lie in 16th place in the table.

A busy transfer window was always likely to result in a prolonged bedding-in period, though, with former Premier League stars Kasper Schmeichel, Aaron Ramsey, Ross Barkley, Nicolas Pepe, Joe Bryan and Mads Bech Sorensen all joining the club during the summer.

Amine Gouiri's electric combination of industry and skill has been sorely missed in attack, though, following his £25m sale to Rennes, but Sofiane Diop will hope to fill that void having made his debut from the bench against his former club at the weekend.

While the league will remain Favre's priority, the Europa Conference League could provide a welcome distraction for him and his players as they aim to restore confidence and pride in the coming weeks.

Koln, meanwhile, will be competing in Europe for the first time in five seasons, when they finished third at the group stage of the Europa League.

They overcame Hungarian side Fehervar to reach the group stage of the Europa Conference League, having finished seventh in the Bundesliga last season.

That represented a major success in Steffen Baumgart's first season in charge of the club, having taken over a side which had flirted with relegation in the previous two campaigns after years of bouncing between Germany's top two divisions.

That does not seem likely to repeat itself under the former Paderborn boss's tutelage, at least, with Saturday's 4-2 win away to Wolfsburg preserving their unbeaten start to the season and moving them up to sixth spot in the Bundesliga.

The 50-year-old will be keen for himself and his players to prove themselves on the European stage, and he will be confident of progressing to the knockout stage having been drawn alongside Partizan and FC Slovacko as well as their forthcoming opponents Nice, who may prove to be their biggest rivals when it comes to topping Group D, making Thursday's trip an important one.

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Team News

Nice do not appear to have any injury concerns ahead of Thursday's visit of Koln.

As such, Favre may look to make several changes ahead of an important trip to AC Ajaccio in Ligue 1 on Sunday, with the likes of Diop, Bryan and Sorensen set to make their full debuts for the club.

However, Barkley may be eased into things given his lack of match fitness after barely featuring for Chelsea prior to his contract being mutually terminated.

Koln will travel to Southern France without several players due to injury, with Sebastian Andersson, Florian Dietz, Benno Schmitz, Julian Chabot, Mark Uth and Mathias Olesen all facing more time on the sidelines.

This situation limits Baumgart's ability to rotate as much as he may have liked ahead of a tricky match against Union Berlin in the Bundesliga on Sunday, but Timo Horn, Kristian Pedersen, Eric Martel and Sargis Adamyan could all come into the side having only been named on the bench at the weekend.

Nice possible starting lineup:
Bulka; Todibo, Dante, Sorensen; Lotomba, Beka Beka, Rosario, Bryan; Ilie, Diop; Laborde

FC Koln possible starting lineup:
Horn; Schindler, Kilian, Hubers, Pedersen; Martel, Skhiri; Thielmann, Duda, Adamyan; Tigges

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We say: Nice 1-1 FC Koln

Given their amount of injuries, Koln are likely to name a more settled starting XI, but we can envisage a share of the spoils here.

Both sides will fancy their chances of progressing from the group, so they may be happy to avoid defeat and prioritise winning their matches against the other two sides.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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