LOSC Lille vs Slavia Praha facts

LOSC Lille and Slavia Praha both have recent experience of the UEFA Champions League and will be keen to take a step towards an appearance in the competition's new-look league phase as they meet in northern France for the first leg of their play-off tie.

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.

The second leg will be played in Prague on 28 August.

Previous meetings

Lille put eight goals past Slavia in the teams' sole past fixtures, 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

LOSC Lille

Record vs Czech clubs: W4 D0 L0 F14 A4
Home record vs Czech clubs: W2 D0 L0

Aside from their two 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 French side have won six of their last seven home European matches (D1) and are unbeaten at their own stadium since than second-leg loss against Chelsea in 2022 – their only home reverse in 11 games (W7 D3).

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.

Slavia Praha

Record vs French clubs: W4 D3 L6 F13 A20
Away record vs French clubs: W2 D1 L3

Slavia's last games against French clubs 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) and ended a run of four games without a victory in France (D1 L3), since a 1-0 victory at Lens in the UEFA Cup third round second leg (1-0 aggregate) on their first visit in December 1995.

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 won two of their six away European games in 2023/24, losing three.

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

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.