Lens draws Manchester City and Liverpool but can believe in Champions League qualification

RC Lens knows its schedule for the Champions League league phase: the Sang et Or will face Manchester City and Liverpool, but also six teams that suggest a realistic qualification. The draw was held Thursday evening in Monaco.

The presence of the two Premier League giants constitutes the main challenge of Lens’s calendar. Lens will host Manchester City at Bollaert and travel to Anfield to face Liverpool — two confrontations that will serve as full-scale tests for Florian Thauvin’s side.

But the rest of the schedule proves far more manageable. At home, Lens will welcome Sporting Portugal, Bodo/Glimt and Como. Away, the Artésiens will travel to Club Bruges, RB Leipzig and Slavia Prague — opponents against which a well-organized Ligue 1 team can legitimately aspire to points.

The historical stakes are real: Lens is competing in its fourth Champions League, but has never advanced past the first phase of the competition. The three previous participations — in 1998, 2002 and 2023 — all ended in elimination in the group stage. This edition, played in the new single-league format, offers Racing a different structure and, potentially, an unprecedented opportunity to go further.

RC Lens’s complete league phase schedule:

RC Lens – Manchester City

Liverpool – RC Lens

Club Bruges – RC Lens

RC Lens – Sporting Portugal

RB Leipzig – RC Lens

RC Lens – Bodo/Glimt

RC Lens – Como

Slavia Prague – RC Lens