Nice's first goal of the season is not enough as Le Mans hold on for a 1-1 draw

Nice had gone two matches without scoring — a 0-0 and a 3-0 defeat — before Elye Wahi finally got them on the board. It only bought a point.

Adil Bourabaa put newly promoted Le Mans ahead after 13 minutes. Wahi levelled it at 44', right on the stroke of half-time, and the second half produced chances without another goal. Nice finished with 60% of the ball but only two shots on target to Le Mans' three.

A goal, finally, but the search for a first win goes on

Nice have now taken one point from three matches, with just the one goal to show for it, while Le Mans' point away from home continues a solid start to their first Ligue 1 campaign in well over a decade.

Nice's start: two goalless results either side of a defeat

This draw sat in the middle of a run that only got harder to read. Nice opened the season with a 0-0 at home to Lorient, played behind closed doors under a sanction carried over from crowd trouble against Metz in May. Matchday 2 brought a 0-3 defeat at Paris FC, a game in which Nice had 55% of the ball and only 0.65 expected goals to show for it. Wahi's equaliser against Le Mans was the first Nice goal of the campaign in any competition — it took three matches to arrive.

Le Mans: a promoted side finding its feet

Le Mans came into this match off a 2-2 draw at Rennes on the opening weekend, in which they had led 2-0 inside 26 minutes through a Louis Mafouta brace before Esteban Lepaul's stoppage-time penalty snatched a point back for the home side. Matchday 1 had also been a draw, 2-2 at home to Brest. Three matches into their first Ligue 1 season since a long spell outside the top flight, Le Mans had yet to lose — two draws either side of one — and the point at the Allianz Riviera kept that unbeaten start intact, even if the first win was still to come.

Match facts

• 13' — Adil Bourabaa (Le Mans)
• 44' — Elye Wahi (Nice)

What's next

Nice stay 15th on 2 points after three matchdays, still searching for their first win of the season. Le Mans sit 13th on 2 points, unbeaten on the road so far, with both sides moving on to Matchday 4.

How the two sides' seasons went from there

Nice's winless run kept going a while longer. They lost 0-1 at bottom-of-the-table Auxerre on matchday 4 — their first defeat of the season — before finally breaking through on matchday 5, beating a previously unbeaten Lille 2-1 at the Allianz Riviera. Five matchdays in, Nice sit 14th on 5 points (1 win, 2 draws, 2 losses, 3 goals scored, 6 conceded), just outside the bottom three.

Le Mans' unbeaten start lasted one round longer than Nice's winless one. They drew 2-2 at home to Lens on matchday 4 after leading 2-0 at the break, then finally won for the first time, 2-1 over Lorient on matchday 5, with Abdoulaye Bourabaa scoring inside three minutes and Habib Diallo adding a second after half-time. Five matchdays in, Le Mans sit 9th on 6 points (1 win, 3 draws, 1 loss, 9 scored, 9 conceded) — a mid-table return for a side that had never played a Ligue 1 season in the previous decade plus.