Slavia Praha vs LOSC Lille facts

Slavia Praha have it all to do to turn around their UEFA Champions League play-off after LOSC Lille took a firm grip on the tie with a 2-0 win in northern France.

Second-half strikes from Jonathan David (52) and Edon Zhegrova (77) earned the Ligue 1 side a 2-0 win at the Stade du Hainaut in Valenciennes on 20 August, taking them within touching distance of a place in the competition's new-look league phase.

LOSC last featured in the group stage three seasons ago with the most recent of Slavia's appearances coming two years earlier.

Both teams entered this season's competition in the third qualifying round, where Slavia eased past Union Saint-Gilloise and LOSC edged through at the expense of Fenerbahçe.

Previous meetings

Lille put eight goals past Slavia in the teams' sole previous fixtures before this tie, in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage. Gervinho scored twice in a 5-1 win in Prague on Matchday 2, a match in which Slavia had taken an early lead, and was also on target in a 3-1 home success on Matchday 6.

The French club progressed to the round of 32 as group runners-up behind Valencia with Slavia eliminated in fourth place.

Form guide

Slavia Praha

Record vs French clubs: W4 D3 L7 F13 A22
Home record vs French clubs: W2 D2 L3

Slavia's last games against French clubs before the first leg were home (3-2) and away (3-1) victories against Nice in the 2020/21 Europa League group stage that made it three wins in Slavia's last four matches against Ligue 1 teams (L1) before their first-leg loss to Lille.

A 1-0 defeat of Bordeaux in the 2018/19 Europa League group stage was Slavia's first at home to French visitors, in their sixth fixture (D2 L3); they also won the next, against Nice.

Slavia have twice featured in the Champions League group stage, in 2007/08 and 2019/20. In that most recent campaign, they picked up two points from their six games to finish bottom of a section also including Barcelona, Inter Milan and Borussia Dortmund.

The Prague club have twice lost in Champions League qualifying since their last group appearance, to Midtjylland in the play-offs in 2020/21 (1-4 aggregate) and Ferencváros in the third qualifying round the following season (1-2).

The defeat by Midtjylland made Slavia's record in Champions League play-off ties W1 L2.

The Czech club took part in the 2023/24 Europa League, coming through two qualifying rounds to reach the group stage, where they won five of their six games to finish top of a section also including Roma, Sheriff Tiraspol and Servette, before losing to AC Milan in the round of 16 (2-4 a, 1-3 h).

Jindřich Trpišovský's side kicked off this season's European campaign in the third qualifying round, beaten Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise 4-1 on aggregate (3-1 h, 1-0 a).

The Red and Whites have won six of their last seven home European matches, last season's defeat by Milan one of only two reverses in the last 13 (W10 D1).

Slavia were second in the Czech top flight in 2023/24, finishing two points behind Sparta Praha.

Slavia have won five of the 17 UEFA competition ties in which they lost the away first leg, most recently against Polish side Raków Częstochowa in the 2022/23 Europa Conference League qualifying play-offs (1-2 a, 2-0 h aet).

The Czech club have lost the first leg of a European tie away from home by a two-goal margin on seven occasions and have managed to overturn that deficit three times. The last time they did so was in the second qualifying round of the Europa League in 2016/17, when they beat Estonia's Levadia Tallinn on away goals (1-3 a, 2-0 h). They have lost two of the three ties in which they went down 0-2 in the away first leg, most recently going down against Ferencváros in the 2021/22 Champions League third qualifying round (1-0 h).

Slavia's record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W2 L1:
2-3 v Carl Zeiss Jena, 1974/75 European Cup Winners' Cup first round
5-4 v Schalke, 1998/99 UEFA Cup first round
4-3 v Žilina, 2007/08 Champions League second qualifying round

LOSC Lille

Record vs Czech clubs: W5 D0 L0 F16 A4
Away record vs Czech clubs: W2 D0 L0

Aside from their three games against Slavia, Lille beat Sparta Praha 4-1 away – Yusuf Yazıcı scoring a hat-trick – and 2-1 at home thanks to two Burak Yılmaz goals in the final ten minutes in the 2020/21 Europa League group stage.

The last of Lille's seven Champions League group appearances came in 2021/22, when they won their section ahead of Salzburg, Sevilla and Wolfsburg before losing to holders Chelsea in the round of 16 (0-2 a, 1-2 h).

Those were their most recent games in the competition before this season's third qualifying round, when they beat Fenerbahçe 2-1 at home and drew 1-1 away to progress 3-2 on aggregate. They conceded in added time in the second leg in Istanbul, Bafodé Diakité's 91st-minute own goal taking the tie into extra time, but a 118th-minute penalty from Jonathan David sent the French side through.

LOSC had taken part in the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2023/24, winning their section unbeaten (W4 D2) ahead of Slovan Bratislava, Olimpija Ljubljana and KÍ Klaksvik and then getting the better of Sturm Graz in the round of 16 (3-0 a, 1-1 h) before losing on penalties to Aston Villa in the quarter-finals (1-2 a, 2-1 h aet, 3-4 pens).

The first-leg defeat at Villa is Lille's only loss in their last seven away European games (W2 D4).

Lille's sole previous Champions League play-off ended in a 3-0 aggregate defeat by Porto in 2014/15 (0-1 h, 0-2 a).

Les Dogues – who replaced coach Paulo Fonseca with Bruno Génésio in the summer – were fourth in Ligue 1 in 2023/24, their highest finish since claiming their fourth league title in 2020/21.

LOSC have won seven of the ten European ties in which they were victorious in the home first leg, most recently against Fenerbahçe in this season's third qualifying round. This is the first time they have recorded a 2-0 home win in the opening leg.

Lille have lost their only UEFA penalty shoot-out:
3-4 v Aston Villa, 2023/24 Europa Conference League quarter-final

Links and trivia

Slavia coach Trpišovský was in charge of the Slovan Liberec side that won 1-0 at Marseille in the 2015/16 Europa League, although a 4-2 Matchday 6 defeat at the hands of the French club ended his team's hopes of progressing to the knockout rounds.