Can Sunderland come out on top against a Lens side packed with attacking quality and fresh from a strong 2025/2026 campaign?
The Lads travel to north-eastern France for a clash with RC Lens, the 2025/2026 Coupe de France winners and Ligue 1 runners-up, with Black Cats defender Arthur Masuaku having spent six months on loan at the club during the previous campaign.
Today, we’ll play two matches against Les Sang et Or — which also happens to be this writer’s birthday — and both matches will be played
at Lens’ home ground, the Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
The first match will kick off behind closed doors at 12:30 BST, with a match for spectators kicking off at 16:00 BST.
Lens in profile — tactics and talking points
RC Lens play an intense, vertical style of football, typically utilising a 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1 formation.
Within their tactical setup, they focus on high-tempo transitions, aggressive ball recoveries and creating wide overloads to deliver crosses into the box.
They form a 3-4-3 structure in possession, using wing-backs to stretch the pitch horizontally. They also rely on central midfielders and dropping playmakers or dual number tens to progress the ball vertically and shift centre-backs wide during build-up to cycle possession and open passing lanes.
They also deploy a disciplined, compact block that shifts into a 5-2-3 or 5-4-1 shape out of possession and execute a controlled high press with clear triggers rather than chaotic chasing — and can force opponents into wide areas before aggressively closing down space with wing backs.
On the ball, RC Lens are one of the most explosive, vertical, transition-based teams in modern football.
They don’t look to dominate possession, averaging around 48% per match; instead, they focus on rapid, clinical attacking sequences that look to catch opponents before they can get organised.
Out of possession, today’s hosts play with a high degree of organisation, compactness and aggressive structure. They typically defend in a fluid 5-2-3 or 5-4-1 shape, using coordinated, man-oriented pressing triggers to force opponents wide, suffocate space and launch quick transitions.
Player to watch
One player to look out for is 2025/2026 top-five Ligue 1 goalscorer and former Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Celtic and PSG man Odsonne Édouard, who scored twelve league goals for Lens in the previous campaign, netting fourteen in all competitions.
He previously won a quadruple with PSG in 2016, as well as three trebles with Celtic between 2017 and 2020.
Opposition history
RC Lens won Ligue 1 in 1998 and have finished second six times.
They’ve won both the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue, and finished runners-up in both competitions three times and once, respectively. They also reached the final of the Trophée des Champions in 1999.
