Europa League 2025-2026: Lille-Brann, the likely lineups

First day in the Europe League Phase for Lille, which aims to forget the heavy 3-0 loss suffered in the league by Lens last Saturday: the team coached by Bruno Genesio will face Brann, a club from the Norwegian Elitserien that, after losing the Champions League preliminaries against Salzburg, found access to the main phase of the second competition by defeating Hacken and AEK Larnaca.

Thursday&#8217s match will, barring any surprises, mark Olivier Giroud&#8217s return to the European stage: the former AC Milan striker returned this year from the United States and has already been decisive on a couple of occasions. Behind the veteran three decidedly interesting youngsters: the 2001 Felix Correia and Osame Sahraoui and 2006 Ethan Mbappé, Kylian’s younger brother.

Brann is banking on speed and physique to confirm the more than decent form shown in recent weeks domestically: the Bergen City club, coached by Iceland’s Freyr Alexandersson, is relying on an offensive 4-3-3-3 with a trident composed of Mads Hansen, Saevar Magnusson and Niklas Castro, the latter scoring on a penalty in Saturday&#8217s league match at home to Sandefjord, which they won 3-0.

Probable lineups:

LILLA (4-2-3-1): Ozer; Mandi, Ngoy, Mbemba, Perraud; Bentaleb, Bouaddi; Correia, Mbappe, Sahraoui; Giroud. All. Genesio.

BRANN (4-3-3): Dyngeland; Pedersen, Knudsen, Helland, Soltvedt; Kornvig, Sorensen, Myhre; Hansen, Magnusson, Castro. All. Alexandersson.