In the 34th round of the French championship, Nice will host Metz. This is a match in which only one team is motivated. But even a victory for them would not guarantee a successful finish to the season. It’s about Nice. The Eagles are failing the season and have found themselves in the relegation playoff zone. Nice will not fall into the direct relegation zone, because the gap to Nantes is eight points. However, to guarantee staying in Ligue 1 for the next season, Nice needs to perform better than Auxerre, with whom they are level on points but worse on tiebreakers. And just before the previous round Nice was ahead of Auxerre, but suffered another slip, losing to them head-to-head (1:2). Metz, on the other hand, has long ceased to be a problem for anyone. They sit at the bottom of the table, seven points behind Nantes. Metz have no wins in 2026. Their last victory came at the end of last year in the French Cup. Since then they have only lost or drawn. In the previous round Metz were crushed by Lorient (0:4), followed by a defeat to Monaco (1:2) and a draw with Le Havre (4:4). Nice, before the disappointing match with Auxerre, had not lost in five games, although four of those Ligue 1 games ended in draws: with Lens (1:1), Marseille (1:1), Lille (0:0) and Le Havre (1:1). A winning streak included a 2:0 victory over Strasbourg in the French Cup semifinal. So Nice’s current task is not only to avoid relegation but also to prepare for the Cup final. Interestingly, in the first-leg match Metz achieved one of their rare victories precisely over Nice (2:1).