Top meets bottom in Champions League Group B at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis on Tuesday night, as Ligue 1 outfit Lens welcome PSV Eindhoven to their raucous headquarters.
Franck Haise's side claimed an impressive scalp over Arsenal on matchday two, sinking the Gunners 2-1, while the Dutch giants rescued a point in dramatic circumstances during a 2-2 stalemate with Sevilla.
Match preview
© Reuters
The fervent Stade Bollaert-Delelis atmosphere has claimed many a victim since Lens returned to the top flight of French football in 2020, and a lacklustre Arsenal side were the latest continental opponent to fall short on Les Sang et Or's turf three weeks ago.
Despite being left to rue an individual error which allowed Arsenal to take the lead via the boot of Gabriel Jesus, Lens capitalised on David Raya's own mistake to level through a crisp Adrien Thomasson finish before Elye Wahi's second-half strike, and the Gunners had no more answers to the staunch defending from Haise's crop.
By winning their first Champions League game in almost 21 years since another 2-1 success over AC Milan in 2002, Lens - who also recovered from a one-goal deficit to draw with PSV on matchday one - are looking down on the rest of the group with a four-point tally, although they have failed to truly kick on since putting the Gunners to the sword.
Indeed, a 1-1 draw with Lille before the international break preceded a forgettable goalless affair with newly-promoted Le Havre on Friday, where Lens were actually outgunned on the shots tally (14-13), but that stalemate at least stretched their unbeaten sequence to six matches in all tournaments.
Les Sang et Or have also been beaten in just one of their last 13 home affairs, although it came as recently as September 16 - a surprise 1-0 beating at the hands of Metz - and the hosts are still waiting for their first Stade Bollaert-Delelis clean sheet of the new term.
© Reuters
A game that was best consigned to the history books suddenly exploded into life when PSV and Sevilla took to the field at the Philips Stadion on matchday two, as after a goalless 68 minutes, a quartet of strikes flew into the back of the net during an unmissable finale.
Luuk de Jong's late penalty would seemingly be rendered inconsequential by Nemanja Gudelj and Youssef En-Nesyri, but with five minutes played in added time, right-back Jordan Teze popped up to level the scores for the second time and get PSV up and running in Group B.
A solitary point was not enough to lift Peter Bosz's team off the foot of the rankings in Group B, which began with a 4-0 hiding at Arsenal for the Farmers, but amid their underwhelming start to continental action, PSV remain unblemished in the top division of Dutch football.
Indeed, a 3-1 beating of Fortuna Sittard on Saturday moved the visitors onto an astounding nine wins from nine in the 2023-24 Eredivisie season so far, and that success also marked a sixth game in succession where Bosz's men have notched at least two goals, but replicating their Eredivisie feats in Europe is proving a tough ask.
PSV and Lens have never locked horns in a competitive setting before, but the visitors have only ever prevailed in eight of their 28 meetings with French teams down the years, most recently seeing off Lille 5-3 on aggregate in a 2010-11 Europa League tie.
Team News
© Reuters
Lens' toothlessness on Friday can be somewhat attributed to the absence of summer signing Wahi through suspension, but the France Under-21 international is now primed to return over Wesley Said at the tip of the attack.
Jimmy Cabot and Wuilker Farinez are both on the same road to recovery from ACL injuries, but Kevin Danso and Massadio Haidara both shook off knocks to start against Le Havre, where left-back Deiver Machado did not feature after his exploits for Colombia.
However, the left-back could come into contention for a place in Haise's customary 3-4-2-1 here, while Argentina's Facundo Medina should also earn an immediate recall to the XI, most likely over Haidara.
As for PSV, long-term defensive absentees Mauro Junior and Armando Obispo are still working their way back from respective knee injuries, although the pair are reported to be back in training and may therefore not be too far away from returns.
Noa Lang also had to withdraw from Netherlands duty this month due to a hamstring injury, which should render the winger unavailable here, but Isaac Babadi and Malik Tillman both overcame respective knocks to come off the bench against Fortuna Sittard.
However, Guus Til - who was a peripheral figure at the start of the new term - has made his case to continue ahead of Tillman in the number 10 role by opening the scoring last time out, while Hirving Lozano deputises for Lang on the left wing.
Lens possible starting lineup:
Samba; Medina, Danso, Gradit; Frankowski, Fulgini, Abdul Samed, Machado; Sotoca, Thomasson; Wahi
PSV Eindhoven possible starting lineup:
Benitez; Teze, Ramalho, Boscagli, Dest; Veerman, Schouten; Bakayoko, Til, Lozano; De Jong
We say: Lens 1-2 PSV Eindhoven
Even with a refreshed Wahi back to lead the charge, Lens should not be expected to go toe-to-toe with PSV in an attacking sense, and their showing against Le Havre certainly left something to be desired.
Haise may chalk up that off day to the recent international break, but faced with the PSV goalscoring juggernaut, Les Sang et Or - for all of their defensive nous - could be overwhelmed.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Ben Knapton
