Lille vs Slavia Prague Preview

Lille will look to make it back-to-back wins in all competitions when they welcome Slavia Prague to the Stade du Hainaut for the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.

The hosts are yet to taste defeat after three games in all competitions this season (W2, D1) with their 2-0 victory over Reims at the weekend their first in Ligue 1. Before then, they had beaten Jose Mourinho’s Fernabahce’s side 3-2 on aggregate, scoring a stoppage-time winner despite playing with a man down in the game’s closing stages.

The Mastiffs showed their mental strength this term at the weekend, recovering from the setback of seeing their teammate Angel Homes suffer a serious head injury and subsequently be taken to hospital following an aerial collision. New boss Bruno Génésio will be looking for his men to replicate Saturday’s spirit in this game against Slavia Prague on Tuesday.

He has good reason to be confident, given that his side has won all of their last four meetings with Czech clubs. However, the fact that they failed to keep a clean sheet in any of those matches may worry fans.

Meanwhile, Salvia Prague arrive in France in good form themselves. The Czech club are unbeaten in seven matches in the new campaign (W6, D1). That run includes defeating Royale Union Saint-Gilloise to progress to this stage of UCL qualifying – the furthest that the Red and Whites have gone in this competition since 2020/21.

Jindřich Trpišovský’s men have an excellent recent record on the road in continental competition having won three of their last four such matches (L1). The only defeat in that run came against AC Milan. So, there should be strong belief among fans that they can overcome Lille.