What started out as a promising tale between Nice and Christophe Galtierended in somewhat bitter fashion, as the Frenchman departed the Allianz Riviera after just one season to replace Mauricio Pochettino at Paris Saint-Germain.
Les Aiglons could have ended the 2021-22 season having secured Champions League football and with a Coupe de France trophy in the cabinet,
but Galtier’s side ultimately dropped to fifth place – settling for Europa Conference League football in the process – and they lost in the Coupe de France final to Nantes.
Lucien Favre has returned to Nice for a second spell at the club after the club allowed Galtier to head for the Parc des Princes, and the ex-Borussia Dortmund
boss saw his side begin pre-season with a 1-1 draw versus Cercle Brugge, as Andy Delort opened the scoring within eight minutes before a Yannis Nahounou own goal.
The Aiglons boss insisted that the draw was “not bad” on the whole, as the 64-year-old got a good look at all of his players ahead of an unforgiving camp in Portugal, which sees Nice take on Benfica a day before the battle with the Cottagers.
Torino and Roma will then pit their wits against Nice before their Ligue 1 campaign begins against Toulouse on August 7 – another newly-promoted side – so doing battle with Fulham is undoubtedly ideal preparation for the continental contenders.
Returning to the Premier League at the first attempt, Fulham have been handed one of the most challenging top-flight openers that the organisers had to offer, as Marco Silva’s side take on Liverpool on the opening day at Craven Cottage.
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Possessing a striker in Aleksandar Mitrovic who can hit 43 goals in one Championship season is a surefire formula for success for Fulham, who have already made two eye-catching midfield signings in Andreas Pereira and Joao Palhinhathis summer.
The likes of Fabio Carvalho, Jean Michael Seri and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa have all ended their stints with the Cottagers, who will not have fond memories of their most recent game, which ended in a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Sheffield United.As is the case with Nice,
Fulham also have two fixtures in the space of 24 hours to contend with, as Silva’s side will do battle with Benfica on Sunday before meeting Estoril and Villarreal later this month.
