RC Lens Stuns Slavia Prague in Dramatic UEFA Champions League Win
Ruben Aguilar turned a wild night in Prague into club folklore as RC Lens ripped up the script with a staggering 3-2 UEFA Champions League win over Slavia Prague at the Fortuna Arena.
For Dino Toppmöller and his players, it looked gone. Finished. Ten-man Slavia, hanging on and then suddenly roaring again, had just gone 2-1 up in the 89th minute through Sturm. Lens, who had chased and chased, stood on the brink of a brutal defeat.
Then chaos took over.
Florian Thauvin dragged them back from the edge in the 91st minute, levelling the match and igniting the away end. Two minutes later, Aguilar stepped forward and smashed in a stunning strike inside the post, the kind of finish that silences a stadium and sends a season spinning in a new direction.
From despair to delirium in four minutes. From a likely loss to Lens’s first away victory in the Champions League since 1998.
In the aftermath, speaking to Canal+, Aguilar almost struggled to process what had unfolded. He admitted that nobody could have imagined such a frenzied finale, stressing how deeply the players are bound together by the suffering they share on nights like this. For him, that bond is the heartbeat of this Lens side.
Wearing the Lens badge, he insisted, demands total commitment. One hundred per cent, every minute. He spoke of giving everything for the people of Lens, of a club where emotions feel amplified and raw, and of the pride he felt standing on Europe’s biggest stage after deciding a match like this. In his words, they “couldn't have written this scenario.”
The story carried an extra layer of joy for Aguilar. The defender didn’t just savour his own winner; he revelled in sharing the moment with Thauvin. The pair trained together earlier in their careers, and now, on a Champions League night in Prague, both found the net. For Aguilar, seeing his “buddy Flo” walk away with the man of the match award capped the evening.
Their friendship runs through the heart of this Lens squad. Aguilar highlighted not just the starters but the entire group, including the substitutes, for staying united through every surge of momentum and every setback. They laugh together, they suffer together, and on this night, they were all rewarded.
Lens now have to bottle that emotion and take it home. The European adventure has started in the most dramatic fashion imaginable, but there is no time to linger on the celebrations. Toppmöller’s men are back in Ligue 1 on Sunday, hosting Le Mans FC.
After a night like this in Prague, the question is simple: how far can this resilience and togetherness carry them, both in Europe and at home?
