Lens stuns Slavia Prague with stoppage-time comeback, wins 3-2 in Champions League

Slavia Prague had victory firmly in its grasp until stoppage time, but Lens spoiled the party with two goals in the space of two minutes. At the Fortuna Arena, the French side walked away with a 3-2 win that looked impossible when the clock hit the 87th minute, all in the Champions League.

The match took a while to open up, but the start of the second half was chaotic. In the 47th minute, VAR stepped in to review an incident involving Mikulas Konecny: a red card shown to him was first overturned, but a minute later, in the 48th minute, the defender was sent off anyway. With Slavia Prague down to ten men, the last thing anyone expected happened: in the 50th minute, Danijel Sturm curled a left-footed strike from outside the box into the top corner off an assist from Samuel Isife, putting the home side ahead despite being a man down.

Lens, which was clearly dominating possession, found the equalizer in the 72nd minute through Abdallah Sima, who finished with his right foot from the center of the box after a corner kick. The match appeared to be heading toward a share of the points, but Sturm struck again in the 87th minute: this time from a direct free kick, he sent another low right-footed shot just inside the left post to make it 2-1, and the Fortuna Arena erupted, already thinking about the win.

There was no time to celebrate for long. The referee added five minutes of stoppage time, and Lens made full use of them. In the 90th minute, Florian Thauvin headed home the equalizer off a cross from Mezian Mesloub, and just two minutes later, in the 92nd minute, Ruben Aguilar finished with his right foot next to the left post to complete the comeback and make it 2-3 on the scoreboard.

The numbers behind the madness

Lens's dominance in possession and overall volume of play is reflected in the match statistics, though Slavia Prague was lethal in the few chances it had despite playing more than 40 minutes with a man disadvantage.

According to our own estimate calculated from the match's shots, Lens generated an xG of 2.40 compared to Slavia Prague's 2.24, figures that end up fairly even and reflect a back-and-forth match beyond the final result.

The preview we published before the match gave Slavia Prague a 40% chance of winning, 27% for a draw and 33% for a Lens victory, with expected goals of 1.61 for the home side and 1.45 for the visitors. The outcome ended up leaning closer to the less favored scenario for the Czech side, which had the match won before it all slipped away in stoppage time.

What the standings show

In the standings for this phase of the Champions League, Lens moves to three points after one match played, while Slavia Prague remains without points after its opening fixture. There is now a gap of 3 points between the two sides following this round.

The match leaves a clear picture: Slavia Prague did almost everything right for more than 40 minutes with a man down, including a brace from Danijel Sturm that had it on the verge of a huge result, but Lens showed that in soccer nothing is decided until the final whistle. Two goals in stoppage time delivered a comeback that few would have imagined with so little time left.