In the last of the fixtures that would be played on Friday, Ligue 1 playoff chasers Lille and Nice begin their respective campaigns at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Nice moved past Lille into the Champions League positions last weekend, though the latter has not been in their best run of form recently only known as Les Dogues.
Saying Lille recent form underwhelming does sound a tad harsh, because for the past four months, Bruno Genesio has taken the club on a record unbeaten run.
Notably, Lille has gone their last 20 games in all competitions without losing out, 13 of those within Ligue 1 competitions, the best run they have had since they were champions in 2011.
The unbeaten run looked under real pressure at Auxerre last week and while Lille emerged as the better team and once again going home from a match empty handed will not do them any harm.
Jonathan David missed a second-half penalty to Theo De Percin, the Auxerre stopper, and though Paul Joly was given a red card in taking it, Lille must consider themselves unlucky not to have scored in the last half an hour to claim the victory, which the match was goalless at the close.
But a morale boosting victory came in midweek when bottom of the league Lille made the journey to Stade Velodrome and knocked out Marseille on penalties in the last 32 of the Coupe de France.
Lille was defeated by Luis Henrique in the 96 th minute before getting right back on their feet and winning the penalty shootout in which they scored all the penalties while Vito Mannone saved two of the penalties that the hosts attempted.
That should help them get a better result against Nice, as you would not believe, but Lille have struggled massively against Nice at their own stadium, having won only two of their last 16 home games against Nice, and both of those came in the current year with the same manager.
Les Dogues fell out of the top four as a result of that and Nice's 4-2 victory against Reims; Genesio's team lost too many domestic ties.
However, nine of those have resulted in draws, and Bordeaux vs. Marseille (21) is the only match in Ligue 1 in the twenty-first century to have produced more draws than this one (19).
Nice has been all about victories lately, though, as they moved up to fourth place last weekend, one point ahead of Lille.
After winning just 10 of their first eight games of the season, Franck Haise's young team has made a stunning comeback, taking 20 points out of a possible 27.
Nice maintained that momentum in the middle of the week as well, defeating Bastia 1-0 away to guarantee their place in the round of 16 in a far less dramatic last-32 match in the Coupe de France than Lille.
They have already lost just one of their previous six home games, and that was surprisingly against Montpellier, who are currently at the bottom of the standings, in December.
Nice's assault is also helping them move up the standings; despite only keeping three clean sheets in Ligue 1 so far this season, they have only lost once in their previous 13 games.
