Anderlecht seek home improvement against Olympiacos

When RSC Anderlecht and Olympiacos FC come face to face on matchday two in the UEFA Champions League Group C, it will be their first competitive meeting for 39 years.

• Both teams need points having each lost their first fixture. While Anderlecht went down 2-0 at SL Benfica, Olympiacos FC were beaten 4-1 at home by Paris Saint-Germain FC.

Previous meetings
• The teams played a friendly game in Piraeus on 7 August which Olympiacos won 1-0 thank to a Dimitris Siovas goal.

• The last time this fixture was played on the European stage was in autumn 1974 in the European Champion Clubs' Cup second round. Anderlecht were 5-1 home winners but had to withstand an almighty second-leg scare in Patras as Maik Galakos scored a hat-trick for Olympiacos, who nevertheless bowed out after only managing a 3-0 success.

• Anderlecht are unbeaten in their last seven competitive fixtures against Greek sides, winning four and drawing three. Their only other defeat came in a 2002/03 UEFA Cup fourth round tie, 3-0 against Panathinaikos FC. Their overall record is W5 D5 L2 (W4 D2 L0 at home).

• Anderlecht's last six meetings with Greek opponents have come against AEK Athens FC, in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League group stage and the 2010/11 and 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage. They recorded three victories and three draws, but won three of their last four fixtures.

• Olympiacos' only other experience of Belgian opponents came in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League group stage, when they beat R. Standard de Liège 2-1 at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium but went down 2-0 in the return.

Match background
• In their tenth UEFA Champions League participation, Anderlecht finished bottom of Group C last season and suffered the same fate in all the other five group stage campaigns since progressing to the second group stage in 2000/01.

• In those six seasons they have won just four fixtures and when they beat FC Zenit 1-0 on matchday four in last season's competition it was their first home success in the UEFA Champions League proper in nine years.

• In 2012/13, when Anderlecht returned to the competition proper after four qualifying failures, the Belgian champions lost their two other home games, against AC Milan and Málaga CF.

• Olympiacos, in the group stage for the 15th time and their third in succession, reached the 1998/99 quarter-finals.

• Last season they finished third in Group B, losing away games at Arsenal FC and FC Schalke 04 and winning 2-1 at Montpellier Hérault SC. The previous season they also finished third in their section, losing away against Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund while winning in France – against Olympique de Marseille.

Team ties
• Míchel was in the starting lineup for both Real Madrid CF's dramatic encounters against Anderlecht in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup second round. Madrid lost 3-0 in Brussels but won the return 6-1 to go through.

• Kostas Manolas played in three of AEK's UEFA Europa League games against Anderlecht and was sent off in Brussels on 15 September 2011, when the Belgian club won 4-1. Anderlecht team-mates Olivier Deschacht and Silvio Proto played the full 360 minutes across the two seasons.

• Anthony Vanden Borre was on target when Anderlecht met AEK in the UEFA Champions League group stage on 6 December 2006, scoring the opener in a 2-2 draw.