Nimes vs Nice Predictions

Nimes had an absolutely phenomenal season on their return to the top flight after promotion in 17-18, finishing in 9th place in the league. Even this top half finish wasn’t enough to see them be the highest placed promoted side though, as fellow promoted side Reims finished 1 place above them in 8th place, an incredible start to life in Ligue 1 from both sides.

Nimes had an incredible home record last campaign, winning 9 and drawing 5 of their 19 home league games, losing just 5. This including an impressive 8 game unbeaten run at home, where they won 6 and drew 2, including a 3-1 win over Rennes, a 2-1 win against Bordeaux and a 1-0 win against Monaco. Nimes games last season saw the 3rd most goals in the entire league, but most of those goals came in games away from home.

At home in the league, Nimes games averaged a still relatively high 2.63 goals per game, but 3 games with 5+ goals really skewed that average, namely a 4-2 loss to PSG (1st), a 3-2 loss to Lille (2nd), and a 3-2 loss to Lyon (3rd). Overall at home, 10 of Nimes games saw Under 2.5 goals land (53%).

Nice had a fairly decent but not overly impressive season by their standards, finishing 7th in Ligue 1. They finished the season on 56 points, just 3 points ahead of their opponents for this fixture, Nimes. Their form away from home let them down slightly, as they picked up just 22 points on the road, putting them at 10th best in the away league table. They won just 5 games, losing 7 and drawing 5.

In terms of goals, Nice were by far and away the most boring team in the entire league. They were the only team to average less than 2 goals in their games, with an appallingly low 1.71 goal average. Away from home, they were even more stringent, seeing just 1.68 goals per game. 79% of their games saw 2 or less goals, with 37% of their games seeing exactly 1 goal on the road.

In their first games this season, Nimes got the worst possible opening fixture, away at PSG, and somewhat respectably only lost 3-0. On the other hand, Nice started off the season with a fairly easy home match against Amiens (who finished 15th last season) and beat them 2-1.

Based on the statistics available, we see this being another typical boring Nice game, with Under 2.5 goals looking the best value bet here. We think Nimes have the better chance of winning the game, so we’re going for a 1-0 Nimes win as the correct score bet.