Thursday 19 February 2026, Lille OSC 0 Red Star Belgrade 1 - Europa League Play-Off, Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Weekend of football planned in Belgium but spotted that Lille may be in a home Europa League play-off game on the Thursday, so Eurostar booked and then just had to wait to see if my plan would work out. It did and a ticket was easily purchased as they only managed to fill half the ground ( guess may be very different in next round).
Plenty of Red Star fans in the main square and I let them leave for the stadium before I grabbed the Metro a few minutes later - first problem - the police closed the path to the ground from the Metro - so if not in the away section, had a longer walk to the ground. Very impressive stadium, roof closed, good sight lines from any seat. Be warned if going to a game in Lille, not all turnstiles were open and the body searches took a while - even so, both Red Star and Lille ultras managed to get pyro in! So I would recommend getting to the ground early and give yourself plenty of time as you queue to get in.
Football wise, Lille were very poor and very surprised to see that they ended up overturning this result with an away win in Serbia, playing Giroud from the start may of helped, he only made a late cameo appearance here. Red Star at the time seemed happy with the narrow win but in hindsight they should have gone for more goals in a game that they controlled easily for most of the 90 minutes.
With Red Star fans kept in the ground afterwards, it meant the path to the tube was open and was back in the city centre within 15 minutes. Train the next day booked for Gent
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