All you need to know about Lens vs Paris!

A LITTLE HISTORY...

The two teams have already played each other 86 times in official matches, and the record is largely in the Parisians' favour (41 wins, 21 draws and 24 losses).

At the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, the record is less good for Les Rouge et Bleu: 9 wins, 14 draws and 15 losses in 38 official matches.

This fixture has a history of scoring goals: 261 in 86 matches, with an average of more than three goals scored per game. On only four occasions have the two teams finished a match scoreless.

Paris' top scorer against Lens is Mustapha Dahleb, with 11 goals. He is ahead of François M'Pelé (8 goals), Dominique Rocheteau (7 goals) and Safet Susic (5 goals).

Two Paris strikers have scored hat-tricks against Lens: François M'Pelé at the Stade Bollaert on 28 February 1976 in the French Cup Round of 16 (3-0) and Laurent Leroy at the Parc des Princes on 14 April 2000 (4-1).

36 players have played for both teams: Alphonse Areola, Serge Aurier, Milan Bisevac, Jules Bocandé, François Brisson, Zoumana Camara, Clément Chantôme, Charles-Edouard Coridon, Éric Cubilier, Stéphane Dalmat, Frédéric Déhu, Jean Deloffre, Nicolas Douchez, Pierre-Alain Frau, Bernard Hereson, Arnaud Kalimuendo, Bonaventure Kalou, Bernard Lama, Loïck Landre, Nicolas Laspalles, Ronan Le Crom, Jérôme Leroy, Danijel Ljuboja, Patrice Marquet, Jean-Eudes Maurice, François M'Pelé, William N'Jo-Lea, Pascal Nouma, Alex Nyarko, Stéphane Pédron, José-Karl Pierre-Fanfan, Thierry Rabat, Bruno Rodríguez, Daniel Xuereb, Christian Zajaczkowski and Bruno Zaremba.

THE STAKES...  

There are only two matches left before the halfway point of the championship! Paris Saint-Germain need just one point against Lens to be crowned autumn champions for the 14th time in the club's history after the 1985-86, 1988-89, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons.

Paris Saint-Germain, unbeaten leaders in the league (14 wins and 2 draws), will also want to continue their fine unbeaten run in Ligue 1 of 25 matches without loss (20 wins and 5 draws).

Paris are on a run of 32 matches in all competitions without defeat since a 3-0 loss to Monaco on 20 March.  This is already one of the top three runs in Rouge et Bleu history: the record currently stands at 37 matches from August 1993 to April 1994, ahead of the 36-match run from March 2012 to December 2013.

The team could also record a ninth consecutive win in all competitions, a series that would enter the top 3 in the history of the club, behind the 16 straight wins in 2015-16, the 11 wins in 2013-14, and tied with the 9 wins in 2014-15 and 2016-17.

THE KEYS TO THE match...

Paris will be able to count on its steely defence away from home in the league: with only two goals conceded (against Lille and Lorient), the capital club has already beaten its record after eight away games in Ligue 1, set during the 2015-16 season (3 goals conceded after 8 away matches).

Parisian goal scorers also like playing against Lens, with 150 goals conceded by Les Sang et Or against Paris Saint-Germain. Only 3 clubs have done worse than the Northerners: Saint-Etienne (167 goals), Lyon (162 goals) and Nantes (153 goals).

RC Lens are the only club in Ligue 1 yet to have conceded a goal scored by Kylian Mbappé since he joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2017: a new challenge for the Parisian number 7!

Marco Verratti could play his 400th official match with Les Rouge et Bleu. Only one player has done better: Jean-Marc Pilorget (435 matches from 1975 to 1989).