The home side’s first-half performance belied their lowly position with an utterly dominant display. Djibril Coulibaly came close to giving Nice the perfect start but his effort hit the stanchion behind the goal before rippling the wrong side of the net, with many inside the Allianz Riviera thinking the bottom side had taken the lead.
Elye Wahi was twice denied opportunities by the offside flag before the hosts finally went in front. Mohammed Amoura was played in down the left and his improvised cross was deflected into the far corner by Ngoy for an OG from the Belgian international.
Wahi should’ve made it 2-0 after half an hour. He was unmarked inside the box as he thumped a vicious left-foot effort off the post following another delicious left wing cross by Amoura.
It was then an end-to-end start to the second half. Yéhvann Diouf had to react instinctively to keep out a header from Ayase Ueda to preserve Nice’s lead before Niels Nkounkou blazed over from inside the box when set up by Wahi.
Diouf’s busy start to the half continued as he saved well from Tiago Santos’ piledriver before gathering Nabil Bentaleb’s drive from range.
As in the first half, Wahi then had a gilt-edged opportunity to double Nice’s lead as he was played through on goal but chose to chip his effort which was smothered by Berke Ozer.
Thankfully for Les Aiglons, where Wahi failed, Amoura succeeded moments later.
The provider of the opener turned scorer for the second as he collected a long ball from Gauthier Hein before showing composure to round Ozer and finish into an empty net.
Lille refused to go down without a fight and reduced the deficit through Ueda with 10 minutes to play.
The Japanese international finished powerfully with his left foot to set up a grandstand finish before nearly equalising minutes later, only for Diouf to save brilliantly to his left from Ueda’s header.
The Ligue 1 table will make much better reading for Nice fans over the forthcoming international break as they move out of the relegation zone. While Lille drop down to fourth after their first domestic defeat of the campaign.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Gauthier Hein (Nice)