Sports

Lens to Face Club Brugge in Champions League Match Just 70 Miles Apart

By Today News Hours Editorial Desk

Lens will travel to Belgium to play Club Brugge in a Champions League group‑stage match on Wednesday. The two clubs’ home stadiums are only 68.5 miles apart by road, a drive that takes about an hour and 20 minutes. The straight‑line distance between Stade Bollaert‑Delelis in Lens and Jan Breydel Stadium in Brugge is 55 miles. Lens supporters will arrive in Brugge in under 90 minutes and will need to use their Flemish phrasebooks for the short trip across the border. The matchup is the closest in the Champions League proper since the 2022 clash between Bayern Munich and RB Salzburg, whose stadiums were just over 80 miles apart. Earlier European competitions have seen even shorter distances, such as the 1979‑80 European Cup tie between Dundalk and Linfield, whose grounds are about 45 miles apart, and the 2025‑26 qualifying tie between FC Copenhagen and Malmö, which required a 27‑mile crossing of the Øresund Bridge.