Nice vs Saint-Etienne: Decisive Ligue 1 Playoff Showdown Looms at Allianz Riviera

The Allianz Riviera hosts the second leg of a Ligue 1 promotion relegation playoff on 29 May 2026, with Nice and Saint-Etienne locked at 0-0 on aggregate from their first encounter four days earlier. Nice finished 16th in the 2025/26 season (roughly seven wins, eleven draws and sixteen defeats across thirty-four matches) and need a win to avoid dropping into Ligue 2, whereas Saint-Etienne, the Ligue 2 promotion playoff winners, are chasing an immediate return to the top flight after a stint below. Win and you stay up, lose and you go down.

Claude Puel returned to Nice on 29 December 2025 for a second spell through the end of the season, arriving with assistants Julien Sablé and Cédric Varrault to stabilise a side in danger. Philippe Montanier took the Saint-Etienne job on 1 February 2026 after Eirik Horneland was replaced, with an extension option if things go well. Their head to head record is thin but both know French football well enough that tactical surprise seems unlikely.

Nice arrive in uneven shape, their last five matches producing a 1-3 defeat to Lens, a goalless draw with Metz and a handful of other draws and narrow losses. They don't score much and they don't concede much and the numbers bear that out across the whole second half of the season. Saint-Etienne thrashed Amiens 5-0 and came through their promotion playoff via a penalty shoot out against Rodez, though the first leg against Nice tested their attack without producing a single shot on target.

Nice are without Hicham Boudaoui, who picked up a head injury in the first leg, while Elye Wahi returns from suspension. Centre-backs Youssouf Ndayishimiye and Moise Bombito also carry fitness concerns that have lingered through the second half of the season. Saint-Etienne have a longer injury list: Paul Eymard (broken foot), Mahmoud Jaber (post surgery), Florian Tardieu (calf) and Nadir El Jamali (knee) are all out. Zuriko Davitashvili is available despite a dip in form across the last month, though his fourteen Ligue 2 goals suggest the ability is there when the game opens up and Augustine Boakye is back after suspension.

Nice are likely to line up with Diouf in goal, a back three of Mendy, Bah and Oppong, Clauss and one of Boudaoui or Vanhoutte in wide roles, Sanson and Abdi in central midfield and Cho, Diop and Wahi or Carlos up front. Saint-Etienne will probably go with Larsonneur, Pedro, Le Cardinal, Bernauer and Appiah across the back, Gadegbeku and Kanté holding, and Moueffek, Davitashvili, Boakye and Stassin further forward.

Puel has Nice set up to keep things tight, with an emphasis on defensive solidity while Wahi and Clauss provide the attacking threat. The first leg told its own story about Saint-Etienne's output: no shots on target, which suggests Nice's defensive block is difficult to break down even with direct play. Wahi against Le Cardinal and Bernauer, Clauss against Appiah and Pedro and Davitashvili trying to find space against Sanson and Abdi are the individual contests worth watching but the midfield battle between Kanté and Gadegbeku on one side and Sanson and Abdi on the other will determine whether Saint-Etienne ever get enough time on the ball to work Davitashvili into the game.

Nice have won around twenty-two of roughly fifty meetings with Saint-Etienne compared to seventeen for the visitors, with about eight draws and they have been unbeaten in their last five encounters, including a 2-1 Coupe de France win in December 2025.

Neither side has threatened much from dead balls lately, with Nice looking to Clauss for deliveries from the right. A draw sends Nice through, so they can sit deep and make Saint-Etienne come to them and the aggregate deadlock means both teams treat this as a 90 minute knockout.

Nice 2-1 Saint-Etienne. Wahi returning into a line that includes Clauss on the right gives Nice a threat they didn't have in the first leg. Davitashvili will probably find at least one moment but Nice have enough at home to hold on.