RC Lens lost 9-1 to Como at Stade Bollaert-Delelis on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, a result that stands as the heaviest home defeat in the club’s history and, as Le Parisien reported, the most goals a French club has ever conceded to a foreign opponent in European competition. The Italian side, managed by Cesc Fabregas, scored nine times in 90 minutes to move provisionally into fourth place in the Champions League standings, while Lens left the pitch with a third defeat in the competition and no points from three matches.
The scoreline told the story in full. Anastasios Douvikas opened the scoring from a corner in the seventh minute and went on to complete a hat trick, Nico Paz added a goal and two assists before being substituted in the 58th minute, and Lucas Da Cunha, Marc Oliver Kempf, Mattia Liberali, Martin Baturina and Matteo Papaccioli completed the rout. Ruben Aguilar scored Lens’s only goal, a volley in the 65th minute that briefly saved the hosts’ honor at 1-7.
How Como dismantled Lens in 90 minutes
Como arrived in Lens in formidable form, having beaten Manchester United 4-1 the previous matchday, and needed little time to take control. Douvikas gave them the lead inside seven minutes, finishing a corner, and the same player doubled the advantage in the 32nd minute after Alex Valle’s cross from the second post. Just before halftime, Paz struck a left-footed shot into the top corner off Robin Risser’s goal to make it 3-0.
The second half brought no relief. Da Cunha, a recent call-up to the France national team, scored Como’s fourth in the 47th minute from a Paz assist. Kempf made it five in the 53rd, Douvikas completed his hat trick in the 57th on another Paz pass, and Liberali stretched the lead to 7-0 in the 62nd. Aguilar’s volley in the 65th cut the deficit, but Baturina restored an eight-goal margin in the 69th and Papaccioli added the ninth in stoppage time, 90+1.
Onzemondial.com reported that Lens had a chance to stay in the match when Maxence Caqueret handled the ball in his own area, but the VAR overturned the penalty decision. The call changed nothing about the flow of the game: Como continued to score at will against a Lens defense that the match report described as disorganized and unable to create danger at the other end.
Nico Paz ran the show for Como
The 22-year-old Argentine midfielder was the symbol of Como’s performance. He set up the opening goal with the corner that led to Douvikas’s first, provided the assist for the second, scored the third himself, and delivered two more assists — for Da Cunha and for Douvikas’s hat-trick goal — before being substituted in the 58th minute. Le Parisien described his oriented controls and sudden accelerations as having tormented Lens’s midfield throughout the evening.
Da Cunha’s goal came in a week when he was called up by France, and Le Parisien noted he was expected to be named in the squad again when the next selection was announced on Friday. His Como teammate Jean Butez, also called up in September, was unable to make an impact amid Lens’s collapse.
A third straight Champions League defeat for Lens
The result extends Lens’s losing run in the competition. Onzemondial.com reported that the club had already lost 2-0 to Sporting and to Club Bruges before hosting Como, leaving it without a point from three matches. The schedule offers no respite: Lens travels to RB Leipzig and Liverpool before hosting Bodo/Glimt and Manchester City.
Como, by contrast, continued an impressive rise, sitting provisionally fourth in the standings on a superior goal difference, with a match against AEK Athens next. The club managed by Fabregas sent a clear message to the rest of the competition, according to Onzemondial.com.
The scene at Bollaert
The home crowd turned on its own team as the goals kept coming. Le Parisien reported that Lens supporters whistled their players repeatedly, and especially after Liberali made it 7-0 in the 62nd minute. The 1-9 margin stands as a new low for the club at home and a first for French football in Europe against a foreign side.
| Minute | Scorer | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 7′ | Anastasios Douvikas (Como) | 0-1 |
| 32′ | Anastasios Douvikas (Como) | 0-2 |
| 40′ | Nico Paz (Como) | 0-3 |
| 47′ | Lucas Da Cunha (Como) | 0-4 |
| 53′ | Marc Oliver Kempf (Como) | 0-5 |
| 57′ | Anastasios Douvikas (Como, hat trick) | 0-6 |
| 62′ | Mattia Liberali (Como) | 0-7 |
| 65′ | Ruben Aguilar (Lens) | 1-7 |
| 69′ | Martin Baturina (Como) | 1-8 |
| 90+1′ | Matteo Papaccioli (Como) | 1-9 |
What remains unanswered
Lens coach Pierre Sage and the club have not yet said publicly how they will respond to the defeat, and no official statement on the sporting consequences was available at the time of reporting. What is known is the arithmetic: three matches, three defeats, zero points, and a damage to the club’s European record that no French team has previously suffered. Lens’s next confirmed checkpoint is the away match at RB Leipzig in the Champions League, with Liverpool to follow before the return of Bodo/Glimt and Manchester City to Bollaert.
