The 2020/21 Ligue 1 Champions Lille is not exactly one of the elite French teams. No wonder that their apperances in UEFA Champions League have been quite limited. Nevertheless, their home turf, Stade Pierre-Mauroy, is one of the most modern stadiums in France. It certainly fits for the European games with more than 50,000 fans creating lively atmosphere in it.
During their fairly brief campaign in this continental top flight competition, Lille have not had plenty of famous names in the squad in their Champions League. Yet, a few names did manage to contribute fairly well for them such as Bruno Cheyrou, Morocco international Salehaddine Bassir, Pascal Cygan, Matheiu Delpierre, the former Newcastle and Chelsea man Loic Remy and Jonathan Ikone. As for the manager, only Bosnian boss Vahid Halilhovic was able to bring Lille do to slightly in Europe, especially in their first entry in 2002, whose campaign continued at Europa League afterwards.
Top Achievements
Lille’s best result in the Champions League since their debut in 2001/02 season is only finishing third at the groups stage in 2002. At that time, Vahid Halilhovic’s men won once, lost twice and shared spoils three times. Two of the tie results were when they faced off two high profile teams, Manchester United and Deportivo La Coruna. Unfortunately, that season was the only time they did well. Their next apperances in 2012/13 and 2019/20 season ended horribly as they were stucked at the bottom of the table.
Iconic Moments in the Champions League
Lille’s
Iconic Moments
in the Champions League have been certainly only a few. The best one was probably in 2001/02 season when they held Manchester United in a 1-1 draw. Bruno Cheyrou managed to find the equaliser for Ole Solksjaer’s goal. The next one was still in the same season and with the same result. Yet, this time it was on the road while taking on Deportivo La Coruna. Bruno Cheyrou once again was the saviour in the game as he equalised after Diego Tristan gave the Spanish side the lead. The last one was in 2019/20, once again with a 1-1 draw while hosting Valencia. Jonathan Ikone put them back on a level term after Denis Cheryshev’s opener.
Their worst nightmare in UCL was in 2013 when the eventual Champions Bayern hammered them 6-1 in Allianz Arena. It was by far one of Lille’s biggest defeat in the tournament.
