Trabzonspor tackle Inter in daunting debut

Trabzonspor AŞ begin their first campaign in the UEFA Champions League group stage with a testing trip to face the 2009/10 winners FC Internazionale Milano, who have qualified for the knockout rounds in eight of the last nine seasons.

Previous meetings
• The clubs crossed paths in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup first round, the Turkish team winning 1-0 at home thanks to Tuncay Soyak's late strike, but Inter went through after winning the return 2-0 through goals from Alessandro Altobelli (48) and Fulvio Collovati (84) after Iskender Gönen's 51st-minute dismissal.

• The teams for the second leg, played in Cesena, on 28 September 1983 were:
Inter: Zenga, Ferri, Bergomi, Bagni, Collovati, G Baresi, Marini (Beccalossi 58), Sabato, Altobelli, Müller, Serena.
Trabzonspor: Şenol Güneş, Turgay Semercioğlu, Necati Özçaglayan, Kemal Serdar, Osman Denizci, Hasan Vezir, Güngör Sahinkaya, Tuncay Soyak (Ersoy Gökhan 88), Hasan Sengün, Şenol Ustaömer, Iskender Gönen.

• Current Trabzonspor coach Şenol Güneş played in goal in both games.

• Inter have come out on top in their three other home matches against Turkish opponents in competitive games, always with a three-goal margin. The last contest came in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage when they beat Fenerbahçe SK 3-0.

• Trabzonspor have not taken on Italian opponents since 1999 when they lost 2-1 at home to AS Perugia in the UEFA Intertoto Cup third round. Away from home in the UEFA Cup they lost 2-1 at S.S. Lazio in the 1994/95 third round and drew 0-0 at Cagliari Calcio in the 1993/94 second round.

• That 1983 first-leg win against Inter is Trabzonspor's sole success, home or away, in seven matches against Serie A sides, four of which have ended in defeat.

Match background
• Inter have won only once on matchday one in their last five campaigns but only one of those games has been at San Siro and they have avoided defeat in the last three contests. That victory came in 2008/09, 2-0 at Panathinaikos FC.

• Last season the Nerazzurri failed in their quest to become the first UEFA Champions League winners to successfully defend their crown, going out in the quarter-finals to FC Schalke 04, losing 5-2 at home and 2-1 in Germany.

• In the round of 16 they lost 1-0 at home to Bayern before rescuing the tie with a 3-2 away win. In the group stage the Italian club won all three home games, scoring nine goals. Over the last two group campaigns Inter have won their last four San Siro games and are unbeaten in six group matches in Milan.

• Trabzonspor were given a place in the group stage after the Turkish Football Association (TFF) withdrew Fenerbahçe from the competition. Last season's Turkish Super League runners-up had earlier gone out in the third qualifying round to SL Benfica, losing 2-0 away and drawing 1-1 at home in a game in which Adrian Mierzejewski was shown a red card.

• Trabzonspor lost in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round in 2005/06 having gone out in the third qualifying round the previous season. Between 1976/77 and 1984/85 five of their six European Champion Clubs' Cup campaigns ended in the first round after they had reached the second round in their first tilt at the competition.

• In 11 European Cup away games Trabzonspor have suffered eight defeats and won only twice, scoring seven times and conceding 21.

Team ties
• Alanzinho and Júlio César played together in Brazil for CR Flamengo in 2003.

• Ondřej Čelůstka spent six months on loan at US Città di Palermo in 2009/10, making his only appearance as a substitute in a 3-1 win against Emiliano Viviano's Bologna FC.