RC Strasbourg vs Nice Prediction & Betting Tips 22.04.2026

RC Strasbourg and Nice meet in the Coupe de France on Wednesday evening, 22 April 2026, with a place in the next round and the chance to keep a cup run alive on the line. It’s the sort of tie that can tilt a season. For Strasbourg, with Gary O’Neil in charge, there’s the added hope of turning a lively campaign into something tangible. For Claude Puel’s Nice, this is about stopping the slide, getting a big result away from home and making the cup matter more than their recent league form has managed to do.

The context matters. Strasbourg have already shown they can handle this opponent, beating Nice 3-1 in Ligue 1 on 4 April, and they’ll like the fact this game is in front of their own crowd. Nice, though, won’t be short of motivation. They’ve gone four matches without a win, their attack has stalled, and this tie offers a clean break from a frustrating domestic spell. Cup football can do that. One sharp night and the mood changes.

RC Strasbourg Form & Analysis

Strasbourg’s recent run has been all over the place, but there’s enough life in it to suggest they won’t fear this one. They opened this stretch with a 2-3 win away at Nantes on 22 March, a game that had the feel of a team willing to trade blows rather than sit back and hope. Then came a 1-1 draw at home to HNK Rijeka in the Conference League knockout phase, followed by the rather different experience of going to Mainz and losing 2-0 in Europe. That was a flat night. Still, they responded well enough with a 3-1 home win over Nice in the league on 4 April, then produced a proper statement by hammering Mainz 4-0 at home six days later. Last time out, though, they were brought back to earth with a 0-3 home defeat to Stade Rennais.

That Rennes loss was ugly. No way around it. Strasbourg were ripped apart, with just 0.76 xG of their own and 3.47 xGA against them, and the shot count told the same story: 9 attempts to Rennes’ 26, only one on target, and four big chances conceded. You don’t need much more evidence than that to know they were second best. But they’ve also shown a far brighter side at home, especially in the Mainz game, where the 4-0 win was built on control, tempo and a ruthless edge. When they get on the front foot, they can hurt teams quickly.

At home this season, Strasbourg have been decent rather than dominant, with six wins, six draws and four defeats at their ground, scoring 26 and conceding 22. That isn’t the profile of a team that steamrollers opponents, but it is the profile of one that can score enough to stay in most matches. They’ve also got a useful habit of finding goals when the game opens up. The flip side? They can be exposed when the structure goes. Rennes showed that clearly. So did the 2-0 defeat in Mainz. If Nice can keep Strasbourg from turning this into a transition-heavy game, they’ll have a chance.

There’s also a broader rhythm here. Strasbourg have scored in four of their last six, and even the losses haven’t really been quiet ones. They’re not a side that tends to sit there doing nothing. That makes them dangerous in a cup tie. It also leaves them a bit vulnerable. One clean first half from Nice could put real pressure on them. But if Strasbourg get the game moving and the crowd into it, they’ve got enough in the final third to make life awkward.

Nice Form & Analysis

Nice arrive with the sort of recent record that tells you exactly why they’re not fancied as strongly as the hosts. They drew 0-0 away at Lille on 18 April, then followed that with a 1-1 home draw against Le Havre. Those aren’t disastrous results, but they’re also not the kind of outcomes that suggest a team full of spark. Before that came the 3-1 loss away to Strasbourg on 4 April, then the ugly 0-4 home defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. They did beat Angers 2-0 away on 14 March, but since then the attack has run cold and the momentum has gone missing.

The Lille draw was especially revealing. Nice didn’t create much at all, posting just 0.19 xG, and they only managed five shots with one on target. They were solid enough defensively, giving up just 0.43 xGA, but the match also had that familiar sense of a side struggling to impose itself in the final third. Even the drama came from the officials, with a goal and a penalty both ruled out by VAR. On another night, that’s a different story. On this night, it was another blank. That’s been the problem for Nice for a while now.

Away from home, they’ve been patchy. The Angers win was tidy enough, but they’ve mixed it with too many flat performances, and this run of four without a win says plenty. Their away numbers in the league are respectable enough on paper — one of the better away-goal rates in the division’s benchmark figures — yet that hasn’t translated into consistency. Nice have also failed to keep a clean sheet in five straight meetings with Strasbourg, which is hard to ignore when you’re looking at a cup tie where both sides need some attacking rhythm.

Claude Puel needs a response, and he needs it fast. The issue isn’t just the results. It’s the lack of bite. Nice have gone too long without a win to feel reliable, and they’ve spent too many recent games living off scraps. You can survive that for a while in league football. In a cup tie away from home, it’s a different matter. If they don’t score first, they’ll be chasing the game against a Strasbourg side that’s already shown it can land a punch on them.

Head-to-Head

These two know each other well enough, and the recent meetings lean the way of goals rather than caution. Strasbourg beat Nice 3-1 in the league on 4 April, and that result fits a wider pattern in this fixture. The last eight meetings include plenty of shared scoring and very few clean sheets. Strasbourg have gone three straight head-to-heads without losing to Nice, and Nice haven’t kept Strasbourg out for six in a row.

There’s a clear trend here. Both teams have scored in five of the last five meetings, and four of those games have gone over 2.5 goals. That’s not a coincidence. These matches tend to open up, and neither defence has consistently solved the other. That matters a lot in a knockout tie.

We Predict: Both Teams To Score

We’re backing Both Teams To Score at 4/5 for this cup tie. It’s the cleanest angle on the board. Strasbourg have scored in four of their last six and have already beaten Nice 3-1 this month, while Nice have gone five straight meetings with them without a clean sheet. Add in the head-to-head pattern — five from five for BTTS in the recent series — and this becomes hard to oppose.

The xG projection points the same way, with Strasbourg at 1.2 and Nice at 1.8. That still leaves room for a lively away win, which is why 1-2 feels like the correct scoreline. Nice have enough away threat to score once, maybe twice, but Strasbourg at home won’t go quietly. If you want a small alternative, over 2.5 goals is live too. This one doesn’t smell like a cagey cup stalemate.