Fenerbahce vs Lille

Fenerbahce and Lille are set to trade tackles in the return leg of their fiercely-contested Champions League qualifying tie at the Ulker Stadium Şükrü Saracoğlu.

Fenerbahce fought back late to haul back a halftime deficit in last week’s first leg in France, only to concede a heartbreaking stoppage-time winner, putting Jose Mourinho’s side on the back foot ahead of the return leg. The Turkish powerhouse bounced back with a narrow 1-0 home win against Adana Demirspor in their Super Lig opener at the weekend, fuelling their optimism regarding a potential turnaround. It’s worth mentioning that the Yellow Canaries have never overturned a first-leg deficit in European qualifying, which derails their hopes of reaching the main stage of the Champions League for the first time since 2008/09. There’s no shortage of inspiration for Fenerbahce in Istanbul, where they’ve only suffered one defeat across their last 19 competitive outings (W15, D3 – 90 minutes only).

As for Lille, they’ll hope to evaporate the memory of their last European two-legged tie when they lost to Aston Villa on penalties despite winning the first leg at home in the 2023/24 Europa Conference League campaign. There’s more unwanted history Les Dogues must defy to reach the next stage, considering they last navigated qualifying to secure a berth in the Champions League group phase in 2006/07. On a more positive note for the French outfit, their first-leg triumph against Fenerbahce upheld their unbeaten overall record against Turkish clubs in European action (W2, D3). Maintaining that trend in Istanbul would see Bruno Genesio’s side set up a play-off tie against either Slavia Prague or Union Saint-Gilloise.