Austria aim to end drought against in-form Atlético

Newcomers FK Austria Wien are still seeking their first goal and victory in the UEFA Champions League group stage as they prepare to host the early Group G leaders Club Atlético de Madrid.

• Nenad Bjelica's hosts can take heart from having collected their first point away to FC Zenit last time out but now find themselves up against an Atlético side chasing a third straight victory.

Previous meetings
• Atlético prevailed on the one previous occasion the clubs met, in the 1970/71 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round. Luis Aragonés and José Gárate scored the goals in a 2-0 first-leg home win and although Eduard Krieger's penalty gave Austria an early lead in the Vienna return, Aragonés and Gárate both struck again to complete a 4-1 aggregate triumph.

Match background
• Austria will want to improve on their recent home results in Europe, having lost to GNK Dinamo Zagreb in the play-offs as well as FC Porto on matchday one. They have yet to score in the group stage yet can draw encouragement from some solid defensive displays – including the qualifying rounds, Bjelica's men have kept four clean sheets in six European outings this term.

• After victories over Zenit at home and Porto away, Atlético are looking to complete a sequence of three successive wins in the European Cup for the first time since their very first campaign in the competition in 1958/59 (Dublin City FC 8-0 h, 5-1 a; PFC CSKA Sofia 2-1 h).

• Austria have won only once at home against Spanish opposition in nine previous attempts, a 1-0 success against Real Zaragoza in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup group stage, Radosław Gilewicz the scorer.

• The Austrian title holders' most recent encounter with Liga opposition brought 3-0 home and away losses to Athletic Club in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage. Markus Suttner is the only survivor of that home defeat by Athletic.

• Atlético have won on both their two previous visits to Vienna. Besides their aforementioned victory at Austria in 1970, they also won 2-1 at SK Rapid Wien in the 1976/77 European Cup Winners' Cup first round en route to a 3-2 aggregate success.

Team ties
• During a six-year spell in Spanish football, Bjelica played for Albacete Balompié, Real Betis Balompié and UD Las Palmas. During that time he lined up against Atlético coach Diego Simeone four times, winning once – a 3-2 victory with Betis in March 1997 – losing once, and drawing twice.

• Simeone scored in both of their head-to-head meetings in the 1995/96 Liga season, getting the first goal in Spanish double winners Atlético's 2-0 home success against Albacete and an 88th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 away draw.

• Bjelica's overall record against Atlético as a player reads W1 D2 L3. He once had a trial with the Madrid club but was never offered a contract.

• David Villa was in the Spain squad that won the UEFA EURO 2008 final at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, although he was injured for that game. The tournament's top scorer, Villa did play in the quarter-final against Italy there, converting a spot kick in Spain's 4-2 shoot-out victory, and started the semi-final against Russia until he was forced off by injury. Villa returned to the stadium in November 2009, scoring twice in Spain's 5-1 friendly win over Austria.

• Suttner and Robin Okotie played in Austria's 2-0 friendly victory over Arda Turan's Turkey at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in August 2012. The Atlético player missed an added-time penalty at the same venue against an Austria side including Daniel Royer in a goalless UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier in September 2011. Arda did, however, convert a spot kick there in Turkey's 3-1 shoot-out triumph against Croatia in the UEFA EURO 2008 quarter-finals.

• Okotie is the only survivor of the Austria Wien side that faced Arda's Galatasaray AŞ in Istanbul in a goalless group stage fixture of the 2007/08 UEFA Cup.

• Philipp Hosiner and Christian Ramsebner first came up against Toby Alderweireld in a 2-2 draw between Austria and Belgium in a UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifier on 23 October 2005.