Sports Mole previews Saturday’s friendly clash between Ipswich Town and Nice, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Ipswich Town conclude their pre-season preparations with a friendly against Nice at Portman Road on Saturday afternoon.
This warm-up fixture represents the fourth of pre-season for the Tractor Boys, while their Ligue 1 counterparts are gearing up for their fifth friendly of the summer ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
Match preview
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Ipswich began their pre-season preparations in Austria last month and concluded a week-long training camp with a 1-0 friendly win over Ukrainian giants Shakhtar Donetsk before making the trip to Germany.
The Tractor Boys came up short in a 2-1 defeat to Fortuna Dusseldorf, but they returned to winning ways last Saturday as they claimed a narrow 1-0 victory over Hoffenheim courtesy of a goal on the stroke of half time scored by Jack Taylor.
Head coach Kieran McKenna felt his Ipswich team improved in a number of areas against a Hoffenheim side who finished seventh in the Bundesliga last season, and he was particularly pleased that his squad came through the game unscathed after playing on a “pretty dangerous surface” following a heavy downpour of rain prior to kickoff.
Ipswich are preparing for life back in the Premier League for the first time in 22 years after securing automatic promotion from the Championship last season, and they have one final friendly fixture against Nice on Saturday before their eagerly-anticipated top-flight opener at home to Liverpool on August 17.
Nice, meanwhile, have enjoyed an unbeaten pre-season campaign thus far, with three consecutive 2-2 draws with Lausanne, Leganes and Rizaspor followed by a 3-2 victory against Lecce in Italy last weekend.
Evann Guessand and summer signing Jonathan Clauss put Nice into a two-goal lead before Lecce restored parity with two goals in the space of just four second-half minutes. However, it was Les Aiglons who has the last laugh as Badredine Bouanani netted an 89th-minute winner to seal their first victory of the summer.
Manager Franck Haise feels that his side “have conceded a lot of avoidable goals” during pre-season, but the 53-year-old has taken positives from his side’s performances in attack and hopes they can continue to improve both tactically and physically as the new season edges ever closer.
Nice, who finished fifth in Ligue 1 last season to qualify for the Europa League, will hope to wrap up their pre-season with another victory against Ipswich before gearing up for their first competitive fixture of the 2024-25 campaign away against Auxerre in the French top flight on August 18.
Ipswich Town friendly form:
Nice friendly form:
Team News
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Ipswich boss McKenna has revealed that striker George Hirst will see a specialist to assess the severity of a knee injury sustained in the friendly loss to Fortuna Dusseldorf.
Conor Townsend, one of six new signings by the Tractor Boys this summer, made his first appearance for the club against Hoffenheim and is once again set to battle with Leif Davis for a start at left-back.
Fellow new recruits Arijanet Muric, Jacob Greaves, Ben Johnson, Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson also gained valuable minutes last time out, the latter of whom made his first appearance of pre-season, and they are all set to feature again on Saturday.
As for Nice, they suffered a major injury blow at the end of last month as striker Terem Moffi, last season’s top scorer with 11 goals, ruptured the cruciate ligament in his left knee in training and is now facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Tanguy Ndombele has joined Nice on a free transfer this summer and after featuring as a substitute in the friendly win over Lecce, the Frenchman could be handed a start at the expense of another new recruit Morgan Sanson.
Still going strong at the age of 40, captain Dante is in contention to start in central defence, while Gaetan Laborde is set to compete with Guessand and Mohamed-Ali Cho for a start in attack.
Ipswich Town possible starting lineup:
Muric; Johnson, Woolfenden, Greaves, Davis; Morsy, Taylor; Burns, Chaplin, Hutchinson, Delap
Nice possible starting lineup:
Bulka; Mendy, Rosario, Dante; Louchet, Ndombele, Boudaoui, Bard; Cho, Guessand, Boga
We say: Ipswich Town 1-2 Nice
With both teams keen to end their respective pre-season programmes on a high, we expect a competitive contest to be played out at Portman Road. Ipswich will fancy their chances of success on home soil, but we are backing Nice to come away with a slender victory.
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