Preview: Hull City vs Nice - prediction, team news, lineups

Hull City will wrap up their pre-season schedule in Saturday's friendly against Nice at the MKM Stadium.

The Tigers are looking forward to their first Premier League season in 10 years, while the French visitors are set to continue their 24-year stay in Ligue 1 after avoiding the drop last term.

Match preview

Hull supporters will be counting down the days to next Friday's Premier League opener against 20-time English champions Manchester United.

The Tigers are back competing with England's biggest clubs after coming through a dramatic edition of the Championship playoffs.

After finishing in sixth spot, Hull got the better of third-placed Millwall before they claimed a narrow 1-0 victory in the Wembley showdown with Middlesbrough, who had been advanced to the final after Southampton were thrown out for the Spygate scandal.

Hull have been busy adding to their squad since May's final, splashing the cash on Lucas Herrington, Konstantinos Tzolakis and Nobel Mendy as their three most expensive additions of a window that has seen them sign nine players.

On the pitch, Sergej Jakirovic's side began their pre-season schedule with games against three Turkish sides, which saw them record back-to-back wins over Konyaspor and Caykur Rizespor before playing out a 1-1 draw against Kasimpasa.

After losing 2-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt in their most recent outing, Hull have one final chance to build momentum and confidence ahead of their first meeting with Man United since drawing 0-0 at Old Trafford in February 2017.

Nice, meanwhile, will be hoping to avoid another relegation fight after requiring a playoff to preserve their Ligue 1 status last term.

The Eagles mustered 32 points in 34 games in the 2025-26 campaign, which left them eight points clear of automatic relegation but two points adrift of safety.

They played out a goalless draw in the first leg of their promotion/relegation playoff against Ligue 2 side Saint-Etienne, before they ran out 4-1 winners in the home leg to avoid a surprise relegation.

They will start the new campaign with a head coach, Olivier Pantaloni, and two new players in midfielder Laurent Abergel and winger Gauthier Hein.

Pantaloni's side started pre-season with commanding victories over Nimes and Marseille, before falling to a 2-0 defeat to Juventus and drawing 0-0 with Cagliari, who they then lost to in the subsequent penalty shootout.

Nice will be aiming to return to winning ways before they kick off the new Ligue 1 season with a home game against Lorient, the team Pantaloni left at the end of last season.

Hull City Club pre-season friendlies form:

W W D L

Nice Club pre-season friendlies form:

W W L D

Team News

Hull are contending with an injury crisis that leaves Jakirovic without the services of Charlie Hughes, Cody Drameh, Oscar Zambrano, Darko Gyabi and Eliot Matazo.

Jack Butland, who arrived from Rangers earlier this summer, is expected to be out for around three months after suffering an arm injury.

There are also doubts over the availability of John Egan, Enis Destan, Paddy McNair, Hidemasa Morita, Jens Hjerto-Dahl and Liam Millar.

As for Nice, they have been dealt a major blow with the news that Abergel could miss the entire season after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

Mohamed-Ali Cho is unlikely to feature despite seeing a proposed move to Hull fall through earlier this week.

Victor Orakpo is set to lead the line after shaking off an injury issue to make a substitute appearance against Cagliari.

Hull City possible starting lineup:

Tzolakis; Coyle, Ajayi, Mendy, Giles; Slater, Crooks; Belloumi, Dowell, Akintola; McBurnie

Nice possible starting lineup:

Diouf; Koutoune, Ndayishimiye, Mandza Tsiendi; Clauss, Camara, Coulibaly, Bard; Jansson, Diop; Orakpo

We say: Hull City 2-1 Nice

Hull may be dealing with a significant injury list, but they still have enough quality in their squad to get the better of a team that still has the majority of the squad that were involved in a relegation battle last term.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.