Lille determined to get first win as Inter visit

After draws in each of their first two fixtures in Group B, LOSC Lille Métropole will be anxious to earn their first three points of the campaign when they welcome the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League winners FC Internazionale Milano to northern France.

• The first competitive meeting between the teams finds Inter looking to build on their 3-2 matchday two win at PFC CSKA Moskva, Claudio Ranieri's first European game in charge of the Italian club. Substitute Mauro Zárate's late winner gave the visitors the points after they had led 2-0 early on through Lúcio and Giampaolo Pazzini.

• That followed a shock result on matchday one when debutants Trabzonspor AŞ stunned San Siro with a 1-0 victory thanks to Ondřej Čelůstka's angled winner.

• Lille surrended a two-goal lead on 14 September to allow visitors CSKA to rescue a point. The French side's return to Europe's top table had got off to the best of starts through Moussa Sow's back-heeled finish in the first half and a second for Benoît Pedretti close to the hour.

• Two weeks later Sow was on the mark again at Trabzonspor with another clinical finish but again Lille could not hold on, conceding a late penalty after Mathieu Debuchy had handled.

Match background
• Lille have not conceded in their last three home games against Italian sides. They beat Genoa CFC 3-0 in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage having drawn 0-0 at home to AC Milan in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League group stage and beaten ACF Fiorentina 2-0 in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup third round.

• The French side lost only the first of their four home fixtures against Serie A visitors, going down 1-0 against Parma FC in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round second leg in August 2001, although they still went through 2-1 on aggregate.

• Before a 3-2 defeat in Genoa in the 2009/10 return the French team had gone five games, home and away, without defeat by Italian opposition, winning four and drawing one.

• Inter have not faced French opponents since the 2003/04 UEFA Cup quarter-final when they lost 1-0 both home and away to Olympique de Marseille.

• They have not registered a goal in their last three games against Ligue 1 opposition and have not won in the last six. Inter have recorded three draws and three defeats since a 3-0 home win against RC Strasbourg in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup third round second leg which overturned a 2-0 first-leg deficit.

• While Inter have not won in their last four visits to France, since a 3-1 UEFA Cup second round decider at Olympique Lyonnais on 4 November 1997, their first six trips yielded four victories, one draw and a single defeat.

• This is Lille's fourth participation in Europe's elite club competition and they have still to lose at home in the group stage. The French champions had matching group records on home soil in their three previous participations: two draws and a win.

• Inter, in the competition for the 11th time, have qualified for the knockout rounds in eight of the last nine years. Last season they failed 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 group games they only picked up one point on their travels, although they did win 3-2 at FC Bayern München in the round of 16.

Team ties
• David Rozehnal was a team-mate of Zárate at S.S. Lazio between January 2008 and June 2009.

• Rozehnal scored in the penalty shoot-out against UC Sampdoria to help Lazio to victory in the 2008/09 Coppa Italia final. Pazzini converted his spot kick for Sampdoria.

• Túlio De Melo had a brief spell at US Città di Palermo in 2008 but played only one game, in the Coppa Italia.

• Joel Obi and Vincent Enyeama are team-mates with the Nigeria national side.

• Maicon made 59 Ligue 1 appearances for AS Monaco FC between 2004 and 2006, recording two wins and a draw in four games against Lille.

• Joe Cole was a second-half substitute as Chelsea FC lost 1-0 at home to  Inter in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg on 16 March 2010, the Italian side completing a 3-1 aggregate victory.