Trophée des Champions: Lens edge PSG
RC Lens won the Trophée des Champions for the first time in their history, beating Paris Saint-Germain this evening at the Stade Bollaert-Delélis, despite playing with ten against eleven for nearly an hour.
A first for RC Lens
RC Lens won the Trophée des Champions on Sunday evening at their home ground. In the first official match of the 2026/2027 season, the last season's runners-up defeated Paris Saint-Germain in a nail-biting finish this Sunday at the Stade Bollaert-Delélis (1–0). After taking the lead through a goal by Florian Thauvin, the reigning Coupe de France winners were quickly reduced to ten men but managed to hold off the defending French champions to secure the trophy. It is a first for RC Lens, who were playing in the Trophée des Champions for only the second time in their history—the first being in 1998, when they lost to... PSG!
History for RC Lens 🤩🏆 pic.twitter.com/GndCCMfcbW
— Ligue 1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) August 16, 2026
Making his debut as RC Lens manager, Dino Topmöller field new signings Yacine Titraoui and Franjo Ivanovic in the starting lineup. For PSG side, Lucas Digne and Maghnes Akliouche featured from the off Although the Parisians were largely dominant, they struggled to carve out clear-cut chances. Nevertheless, they created a fine effort from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (8') followed by another attempt from the Goergian that Robin Risser saved with ease (26'
Just past the half-hour mark, the hosts would open the scoring. A scuffed shot from Matthieu Udol turned into an assist at the far post, finding the right foot of an opportunistic Thauvin (32') However, the Sang et Or would not celebrate for long; following a challenge on Akliouche involving studs-to-shin contact, young Kyllian Antonio was sent off (39'). Desiré Doué would then fashion the champions' best chance of the half, as he cut inside and shot from a tight angle, only to hit the crossbar (45').
Lens hold on
Early in the second half, Lens held firm despite being a man down. Udol even tried his luck from distance (51'). Following a corner, Michaël Cuisance had a go from range (56'), followed by a fine strike from 20 meters out by Thauvin (58'). Luis Enrique chose this moment to bring on Nuno Mendes, Fabián Ruiz, and Ousmane Dembélé; Mendes saw his close-range effort saved by Risser after some fine interplay (62') as PSG stepped up the pressure. Doué unleashed a powerful shot that went just over the bar (69'), before Senny Mayulu came close to catching Risser off guard (71').
They went close again with a shot from Dembélé, but the Lens goalkeeper made a fine save (73'). PSG nearly equalized after Vitinha played a ball through to Achraf Hakimi, who immediately laid it off to Ruiz; however, the Spaniard's goal was disallowed for a narrow offside (76'). Dembélé soon had a golden opportunity following a mazy run by Doué, but he scuffed an effort from point-blank range (81').
The end of the match was absolutely frantic. On the counter-attack, Michal Skoras nearly scored before another offside flag went up. Seconds later, the Pole held back Mendes, who struggled to break free and caught him with his elbow, resulting in the Portuguese seeing red (87'). The Parisians threw everything they had left into the attack—exemplified by Doué—but there was to be no second trophy of the week for them following the UEFA Super Cup; Lens had won their first-ever Trophée des Champions!
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