Basel bid to step up pursuit of leaders in Bucharest

FC Basel 1893 visit Romania to take on FC Oţelul Galaţi looking for three points to keep up their pursuit of the top two in Group C.

• With Manchester United FC and SL Benfica in direct opposition in the section's other encounter, Heiko Vogel's Basel know that victory against Oţelul would lift them level on points with one of that pair should there be a winner at Old Trafford.

• Oţelul sit bottom of Group C but Dorinel Munteanu's men have their own motivation – besides the ongoing search for their first UEFA Champions League points, they need a win to revive their hopes of finishing third and gaining entry to the UEFA Europa League.

Match background
• Having already earned draws at Manchester United and Benfica, Basel should travel to Bucharest in confident mood as they face a home team still without a goal at the National Arena, Oţelul's base for this maiden UEFA Champions League campaign.

• Oţelul may be winless but they can take heart from having run the Swiss title holders close in their matchday one meeting. Back then they were within six minutes of claiming a draw before Alexander Frei's late penalty earned a 2-1 success for a Basel side under the charge of Thorsten Fink.

• Oţelul will hope to repeat the result Basel suffered on their first visit to Romania on matchday one of last season's UEFA Champions League when CFR 1907 Cluj struck twice in the opening 12 minutes to set up a 2-1 success. Valentin Stocker got the goal that evening for Basel who won the return 1-0 through Federico Almerares.

• This is Basel's fourth UEFA Champions League group stage campaign after previous outings in 2002/03, 2008/09 and 2010/11 but they have not reached the last 16 since their debut appearance nine years ago.

• Outside of UEFA Cup qualifying matches and the UEFA Intertoto Cup, Oţelul have only once before participated in a UEFA competition proper. In the 1988/89 UEFA Cup first round, they beat Juventus 1-0 at home but went down 5-0 in the return in Turin.

Team ties
• As a Romanian international midfielder, Oţelul coach Munteanu met the Switzerland national team twice. He helped his country to a 1-0 home win in EURO '92 qualifying in November 1991 but later suffered a 4-1 defeat in the group stage of the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

• Munteanu lined up against Swiss clubs FC Luzern and FC Aarau during his days with 1. FC Köln – earning a draw with the former and victory against the latter in UEFA Intertoto Cup ties in 1995 and 1997 respectively.

• Only one member of Oţelul's squad, Sorin Frunză, has played UEFA Champions League football before. He made five appearances, two as a substitute, for FC Unirea Urziceni in the 2009/10 group stage and also featured for Unirea in the UEFA Europa League.

• Frunză's Unirea finished third in their group and 25 years after FC Steaua Bucureşti lifted the European Champion Clubs' Cup, no Romanian side has yet managed a top-two finish in a UEFA Champions League group stage – a trend Oţelul have been unable to reverse this term.