RC Lens vs. PSG: Team News, Injury List, Starting Lineups & Prediction

Two days before the Lens-PSG clash this Sunday night at Bollaert, there are already four absentees to note for the 2026 Trophee des Champions, and they are all Lens players. Several others are questionable, while Luis Enrique will have to make choices for his match sheet. Here is the situation.

After beating Aston Villa 2-1 on Wednesday night in Austria in the European Super Cup, PSG trained behind closed doors Thursday at the Poissy Campus and are off this Friday. Luis Enrique returned from Salzburg with a full squad and, in principle, no injuries, and a final training session is scheduled for Saturday, the day before the Trophee des Champions match against Lens on Sunday.

Against Aston Villa, PSG started several internationals who had just returned from vacation, including Achraf Hakimi, Warren Zaire-Emery, Desire Doue, and Maghnes Akliouche. Ousmane Dembele and Lucas Hernandez also came on during the match, as did new world champion Fabian Ruiz. Only Lucas Digne and Bradley Barcola did not play among the internationals who returned from vacation last Monday.

For this 2026 Champions Trophy, Luis Enrique should therefore, in theory, once again have a full squad. It remains to be seen whether it will be made up of 24 players, as against the English side, given that only 20 names can be listed on the match sheet on Sunday (compared with 23 in the European Super Cup).

Against the Villans, young Italian goalkeeper Alessandro Longoni, who arrived this summer, was the 24th PSG player and therefore was not involved in the match despite being called up. Longoni is also expected to face Manchester City this Saturday with PSG’s Under-23 team, according to Le Parisien.

It is therefore likely he will not be there against Lens. But Luis Enrique will have to leave three other players off his match sheet on Sunday. Against Aston Villa, six PSG players did not feature: Lucas Digne, Ilya Zabarnyi, Dro Fernandez, Quentin Ndjantou, Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye, with the last two possibly leaving the club before the end of the transfer window.

Runner-up to PSG last season in Ligue 1 and winner of the French Cup, RC Lens has had a very turbulent summer. Coach Pierre Sage left for Crystal Palace and was replaced by German manager Dino Toppmöller. The Lens squad has also changed a lot, with several major departures: Adrien Thomasson, Mamadou Sangare, Wesley Said, Malang Sarr and Allan Saint-Maximin.

In terms of arrivals, Lens has brought in Thorgan Hazard, Michael Cuisance, Yacine Titraoui, Michal Skoras, and Croatian striker Franjo Ivanovic, who was officially loaned out by Benfica on Wednesday and is not necessarily certain to be involved this Sunday against PSG.

For this clash with PSG, Lens also has several injured players or players returning who are not yet physically ready. Injured in a friendly at the end of July, Austrian centre-back Samson Baidoo will be out for three months and is already ruled out of the Champions Trophy, as is centre-back Jonathan Gradit, who is coming back from a serious knee injury but is still not ready.

Ecuadorian left back Jhoanner Chavez is still training individually, while Bosnian centre back Nidal Celik took part in his first full training session Friday after meniscus surgery before the World Cup, and he will obviously be nowhere near ready for Sunday.

Former PSG player Odsonne Edouard picked up a groin injury during Lens’ last friendly against Sunderland, and the forward is very doubtful for Sunday: “He trained individually. He should return to team training Saturday. We’ll see, he is an important player, but we are not going to take any risks either,” his coach Dino Toppmoller told the press Friday.

Also speaking to the media on Friday, Florian Thauvin is fit for Sunday and confirmed that he is Lens’ new captain: “I am proud and honoured to be the standard-bearer of this team, to be the captain. It is not extra pressure; it is a logical step for me. I am very happy about it, but there will be no change in my attitude.”

The absentees for Lens-PSG two days out:

PSG predicted XI vs. Lens: Safonov; Hakimi, Beraldo, Zabarnyi, Digne; Neves, Vitinha, Zaire-Emery; Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia.

Lens predicted XI vs. PSG: Risser; Antonio, Ganiou, Nawrocki; Abdulhamid, Bulatovic, Haidara, Hazard; Thuavin, Ivanovic; Edouard.

Match prediction: Lens 1-3 PSG.