Lens host Auxerre on 22 August 2026 in the Ligue 1 opener. Lens arrive with the Trophée des Champions already won - 1-0 against PSG in August - and 70 points as last season's runners up behind them, while Auxerre scraped to 15th on 34 points and only secured survival with a late run of wins. Both managers were appointed in June 2026, so neither has had long to impose their ideas, which makes this harder to call than the table suggests.
Dino Toppmöller and Will Still haven't faced each other before, though Still had a brief spell at Lens during the 2024/25 campaign, giving him some familiarity with the club he's now up against. Toppmöller replaced Pierre Sage on 16 June 2026 and Still took over from Christophe Pélissier four days earlier, meaning this is the first competitive game in charge for both men. There's an element of guesswork about how their systems hold up under real pressure.
Lens are significantly short handed, with Kyllian Antonio suspended after his red card in the Super Cup, Thorgan Hazard also banned and Samson Baidoo, Jonathan Gradit and Jhoanner Chavez all unavailable through injury. That's a meaningful chunk of defensive and midfield depth gone, putting real pressure on whoever Toppmöller fields to maintain the pressing intensity the side is built around.
Auxerre have their own problems going in, with Assane Dioussé out with an ACL injury and Theo Bair suspended, while a string of departures including Owusu, Mensah, Sinayoko and Leon, plus the loan exit of Rémy Labeau Lascary, have thinned Still's options considerably. Losing Dioussé in midfield and Bair up front in the same window leaves Still with no like for like cover in either position and Danny Namaso will carry most of the attacking burden in a 4-3-3.
Lens will press high from the first whistle, with Florian Thauvin captaining the side and carrying momentum from his Super Cup goal. Still wants his side to press and transition quickly through Namaso but without Dioussé and Bair there is no depth to sustain it. The central question is whether Auxerre can absorb the first twenty minutes without going behind, because once Lens build momentum they are hard to shift. Thauvin's movement will be a useful indicator: if he is finding space regularly, Lens are probably winning.
Set pieces matter in a game where both sides are patched together defensively and Auxerre's clearest route to goal is Namaso running in behind a reshuffled Lens backline. If Still can use him effectively there, Auxerre have a chance of making this uncomfortable.
Lens have dominated this fixture lately, winning both meetings in 2025/26 (2-1 away and 1-0 at home) and staying unbeaten across most of the last seven to ten encounters. That record is a weight Auxerre have never quite shaken.
Lens 2-1 Auxerre. The Super Cup win, the superior squad depth and Toppmöller's pressing system should be enough to see Lens through, even with the absences. Without Dioussé and Bair, Auxerre probably cannot sustain enough pressure to avoid conceding twice.
Ryan Baldi
Football Writer
Ryan Baldi is a professional football writer with years of experience and has been featured by respected outlets such as the BBC, The Guardian, Sky Sports, DAZN, FourFourTwo, ESPN, Yahoo Sport and Football365. He has also written several books including Arsène Who?.
