Background: Mönchengladbach start at Sevilla

VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach end their 37-year exile from Europe's elite club competition with a Group D visit to a Sevilla FC side whom they last faced just seven months ago.

• Sevilla got the better of Mönchengladbach en route to winning the UEFA Europa League last season – the prize for which was their participation in the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2009/10.

Previous meetings
• When the clubs met in the round of 32 of last term's UEFA Europa League, Sevilla won the first leg 1-0 in Spain through Vicente Iborra (70).

• The teams for the first leg in Spain on 19 February were:
Sevilla: Rico, Aleix Vidal (Deulofeu 90), Pareja, Carriço, Navarro, Iborra, Krychowiak, Vitolo, Banega (Suárez 88), Reyes (Diogo Figueiras 55), Bacca.
Mönchengladbach: Sommer, Jantschke, Stranzl, Domínguez, Wendt, Kramer, Xhaka, Hazard, Raffael (Kruse 79), Johnson, Hrgota (Herrmann 69).

• In an exciting second leg, Mönchengladbach came twice from behind through Granit Xhaka (19) and Thorgan Hazard (29) cancelling out strikes by Carlos Bacca (8) and Vitolo (26), but they were finally beaten when Vitolo hit the Andalusian side's third goal of the night after 79 minutes.

Match background

Sevilla
• After back-to-back UEFA Europa League triumphs in 2014 and 2015, Sevilla are in the European Cup for the fourth time.

• Unai Emery's men warmed up for their UEFA Champions League return by playing FC Barcelona in the UEFA Super Cup last month – and losing a thrilling game 5-4 after extra time.

• Sevilla won all seven UEFA Europa League games at their Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán ground in 2014/15, conceding just three goals.

• Sevilla have never lost a home game against Bundesliga visitors, posting six wins and four draws from ten previous fixtures.

Borussia Mönchengladbach
• Mönchengladbach secured their first full UEFA Champions League participation by finishing third in the Bundesliga last season. They had previously lost in the play-offs in 2012/13.

• Twice UEFA Cup winners in the 1970s, Mönchengladbach last appeared in the European Cup in 1977/78 when they reached the semi-finals. It was one of five appearances that decade in the competition for Mönchengladbach, who finished runners-up in 1977.

• Mönchengladbach have lost only two of their last ten European away games.

• This is their seventh visit to Spain but they have not won away to Liga opposition since their first trip, a 4-2 success at Real Zaragoza in the 1974/75 UEFA Cup.

Coach and player links
• In his first season as a coach in Europe, Lucien Favre guided Servette FC to a 1-0 aggregate victory over Zaragoza in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup second round but then lost 5-2 (agg) to Valencia in the fourth round.

• As a Club Atlético de Madrid player, Álvaro Domínguez faced Sevilla seven times, winning just once.

• At Borussia Dortmund last season, Ciro Immobile appeared as a late substitute in a home win (1-0) and away defeat (1-3) against Gladbach.

• Players who have played together:
José Antonio Reyes & Álvaro Domínguez (Atlético 2008–11)
Éver Banega & Domínguez (Atlético 2008–09)
Michael Krohn-Dehli & Andreas Christensen (Denmark)

Match facts

Sevilla
• Sevilla are still seeking their first win of the season, having followed up the UEFA Super Cup loss to Barcelona with a goalless draw against Málaga CF, a 3-0 defeat by Atlético and a 1-1 draw with Levante.

• Daniel Carriço (thigh) and Adil Rami (thigh) are injured, while Beto has been ruled out for four to six weeks with sprained knee ligaments.

• Yevhen Konoplyanka scored a penalty in Ukraine's 3-1 UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying triumph over Belarus on 5 September.

Mönchengladbach
• Granit Xhaka is suspended having been sent off in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 second leg defeat by Sevilla last season.

• Mönchengladbach have started a Bundesliga campaign with four defeats for the first time.

• Including the final game of last season, Favre's men have lost five successive league fixtures – their worst run since November and December 2010.

• Gladbach have conceded 11 league goals – last season they did not ship as many until their 14th match.

• Captain Martin Stranzl was forced off after 65 minutes of Friday's 3-0 loss to Hamburg with a suspected fractured cheekbone.

• Josip Drmić scored twice as Switzerland rallied from 2-0 down with ten minutes remaining to defeat Slovenia 3-2 in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying on 5 September.

• Mönchengladbach beat FC Sion 2-1 in an away friendly on 4 September. Patrick Herrmann sustained a left knee injury, while Martin Stranzl made his first appearance since 22 March following a knee problem of his own.

• Domínguez (back) is yet to play this season. Fabian Johnson picked up a calf injury in training on 16 August.

• On 17 August, the Foals announced that Oscar Wendt had extended his contract until 2018.