Lille's 6-1 rout of Feyenoord secures an unlikely place in Champions League last 16

LILLE, France (AP) — When Lille lost its opening Champions League match in September, only a few bold gamblers would have bet on the Ligue 1 side to qualify for the last 16 of European club soccer's elite tournament.

But the northern France side defied all the odds and concluded the league phase campaign of the competition with a 6-1 thrashing of Feyenoord on Wednesday.

“We’ve done the job,” Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier said. “We’ve got some absentees but we’ve got that extra bit of spirit. We were in a group of death and now we’re seventh. We’ve worked hard, we’ve been rewarded and we can dream even more.”

It was the first time Lille scored more than three goals in the Champions League.

Feyenoord center-back Gernot Trauner set a record that his team will not be celebrating. According to Opta statistics, Trauner became the first player to score two own goals in a single Champions League game.

The win saw Lille finish seventh in the standings. With five wins from eight matches, Lille was the standout French club — Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco and Brest will have to go through playoffs.

Lille pulled away with four second-half goals after Osame Sahraoui opened the scoring in the fourth minute.

“We couldn’t have wished for anything better,” Lille coach Bruno Genesio said. “The main objective was to win. We finished this group phase in the best possible way, finishing seventh, and that’s a great source of pride for my players, my staff and all the hard work we’ve put in.”

Despite the big loss, Feyenoord advanced to the playoffs stage.

“It’s a tough one, a tough result,” Feyenoord coach Brian Priske said. "We’re happy we’ve qualified. But today, we really wanted to try and get into the top eight. When you don’t do the basics, and you don’t put the effort in, you won’t get the rewards. I know we have the quality to pick up the points, but today we weren’t good enough.”

Earlier, French police said 86 fans of the Dutch team had been refused entry to France and that 30 had been arrested at the border. France’s interior ministry said a travel ban was introduced because of a “real and serious risk of confrontation” between fans of the two teams.

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Feyenoord's Gernot Trauner, left, and Lille's Mitchel Bakker battle for the ball during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Remy Cabella celebrates after scoring his side's sixth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Remy Cabella celebrates after scoring his side's sixth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Jonathan David,left, celebrates with a teammate after scoring his side's fourth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Gabriel Gudmundsson right, tried to score as Feyenoord's Jeyland Mitchell tries to stop him during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's head coach Bruno Genesio, congrats Lille's Remy Cabella during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Jonathan David, right, celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Remy Cabella , second right, celebrates after scoring his side's sixth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's head coach Bruno Genesio, congratulates Lille's Jonathan David after the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's players celebrate their win after the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's players celebrate their win after the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's players celebrate their win after the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Remy Cabella, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's sixth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's Jonathan David shoots to score his side's fourth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's players and fans celebrate their win after the end of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Lille's players and head coach Bruno Genesio celebrate after their fourth goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Lille and Feyenoord at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, outside Lille, northern France, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

BEIJING (AP) — Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.

Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from about 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.

“It has been a historic and productive two days,” Carney said, speaking outside against the backdrop of a traditional pavilion and a frozen pond at a Beijing park. “We have to understand the differences between Canada and other countries, and focus our efforts to work together where we’re aligned.”

Earlier Friday, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony.

Xi told Carney in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.

“It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement,” China's top leader said.

Carney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as “under great strain.”

He called for a new relationship “adapted to new global realities” and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.

Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called “a time of global trade disruption.”

A Canadian business owner in China called Carney's visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations.

“These three things we didn’t have,” said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. “The parties were not talking for years.”

Canada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carney’s predecessor.

China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said. Overall, China's imports from Canada fell 10.4% last year to $41.7 billion, according to Chinese trade data.

China is hoping Trump’s pressure tactics on allies such as Canada will drive them to pursue a foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become America's 51st state.

Carney departs China on Saturday and visits Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week. He will meet business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment, his office said.

Associated Press business writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, arrives to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, Pool)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)