Slavia Prague and Lens met in the UEFA Cup last 16 in the 1995-96 season, with the Czechia side winning 1-0 on aggregate (0-0 home, 1-0 away); this is the only time they’ve faced before.

In all European competitions, the last French side to win away at Slavia Prague was Lille in a 5-1 win in the UEFA Europa League in October 2009 – since then, all three French teams have lost: Bordeaux in September 2018 (0-1, Europa League), Nice in November 2020 (2-3, Europa League) and Lille in August 2024 (1-2, Champions League qualifier).

Slavia Prague are winless in their last 15 major European matches (D5 L10) since starting their 2024-25 UEFA Europa League campaign with a 2-0 win over Ludogorets Razgrad. The only Czechia side to have a longer winless run is Slavia themselves between October 2007 and December 2009 (19).

Lens have drawn their first match in each of their last four major European campaigns (2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 in the UEFA Cup, 2023-24 in the Champions League). They last started with a win in 2003-04, when they beat Cementarnica 55 Skopje in the UEFA Cup.

This is Lens’ fourth season in the UEFA Champions League – they have been eliminated at the first hurdle on their previous three appearances, in the group stage 1998-99, 2002-03 (first group stage) and 2023-24.

This is the first time that Slavia Prague have qualified for the UEFA Champions League in consecutive editions. Before last season, they had only qualified for two in their history (2007-08 and 2019-20).

Lens have an equal record in the UEFA Champions League, with six wins, six draws and six defeats – it’s the most games played by a team in European Cup history (1955 onwards) with the same totals of wins, draws and defeats.

With just five goals, Slavia Prague were the joint-lowest scorers in the UEFA Champions League in 2025-26 (level with Villarreal). They netted just five times from 9.3 expected goals, which was the fourth worst underperformance of any team in the league phase (-4.3).

Lukás Provod assisted the most goals (2) and created the most chances in open play (13) for Slavia Prague in the UEFA Champions League last season. Indeed, he was one of only two players with more than one goal involvement for them last term (2 assists), along with Youssoupha Mbodji (2 goals).

Lens captain Florian Thauvin has featured in 12 UEFA Champions League matches, all for Marseille in 2013-14 and 2020-21. He’s ended on the losing side in 11 of those (91.7%), with only three players losing a higher percentage among the 2,994 players to play more than 10 games.