Club Brugge look for boost at København

Club Brugge KV will hope lightning strikes in the same place twice when they visit Group G rivals FC København on matchday two.

• Club Brugge won 4-0 when they last visited Parken Stadium and they will be eager for another positive result against FCK as they bid to bounce back from a 3-0 home loss to Leicester City FC last time out. København, by contrast, made a solid start by drawing 1-1 at FC Porto.

• This match pits two players against their former clubs, with Claudemir returning to face København and Tom Høgli welcoming his old side Brugge.

Previous meetings
• The head-to-head record from five previous encounters reads two wins for FCK, one for Brugge and two draws.

• Not once has this fixture produced a home win and Brugge maintained that tradition with their aforementioned 4-0 triumph in Copenhagen in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League group stage. Lior Refaelov hit a first-half hat-trick and Ruud Vormer added a fourth goal for Club Brugge, who won the group with FCK bottom.

• The line-ups on 6 November 2014 were:
København: Andersen, Høgli, Jørgensen, Antonsson, Bengtsson (Toutouh 62), Gíslason, Claudemir, Amartey (Delaney 46), Kačaniklić, Jørgensen (Amankwaa 34), De Ridder.
Brugge: Ryan, Meunier, Duarte, Mechele, De Fauw, Vormer, Simons, Vázquez (Fernando 65), Refaelov, De Sutter (Castillo 46), Gedoz (Sobota 77).

• The clubs had previously drawn 1-1 in Bruges where Daniel Amartey's 89th-minute goal was cancelled out by Víctor Vázquez (90+2).

• København prevailed when the sides met in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round (0-0 h, 3-2 a). Andreas Cornelius and Rafaelov are the only survivors of that second-leg contest in Bruges, although Claudemir was in the FCK starting XI and Høgli on the Brugge bench.

• When the clubs first met in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage, César Santin hit the only goal in a 1-0 victory at the Jan Breydelstadion for København, who qualified in third place in the five-team group, with Club Brugge fourth.

Match background

København
• With their 1-1 draw at Porto, Ståle Solbakken's men are unbeaten in seven matches in Europe this term (W4, D3). This includes home wins in the qualifying rounds against Crusaders FC (6-0), FC Astra Giurgiu (3-0) and APOEL FC (1-0).

• FCK have not scored in any of their three previous home games against Belgian visitors. This includes a 1-0 loss to R. Standard de Liège on 29 September 2011 in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage.

Club Brugge
• Brugge are on a six-match winless run on their travels in Europe. Their last victory was a 3-1 success at Beşiktaş JK in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League round of 16.

• The Belgian club have lost only one of their seven previous matches in Denmark (W4 D2 L1). That solitary defeat was on their very first visit – a 2-1 loss at Brøndby IF in the 1988/89 European Cup first round.

• Jelle Vossen earned Club Brugge a 1-1 draw at FC Midtjylland on their most recent trip to Denmark in last season's UEFA Europa League group stage. Michel Preud'homme's men had lost the home fixture 3-1.

Coach and player links
• With Norway's national team, Solbakken appeared in a 2-0 home friendly loss to Belgium in April 2000.

• Preud'homme was in the Belgium side beaten 3-1 by Denmark in Odense in a June 1988 friendly. As a coach he has a record of W2 D1 L0 on Danish soil with Brugge – including wins at Brøndby, FCK and Aalborg BK in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League.

• Høgli made 76 league appearances for Club Brugge, scoring one goal, between 2011 and 2014, having joined from Norwegian club Tromsö.

• Claudemir made 131 Danish Super League appearances for København, scoring ten goals, between 2010 and 2014. He won two league titles and the 2012 Danish Cup, scoring the only goal in the final victory over AC Horsens at Parken Stadium.

• Erik Johansson spent the first half of last season in Belgium with KAA Gent, making nine league appearances.

• Other former team-mates:
Nicolai Boilesen & Stefano Denswil, Ricardo van Rhijn (AFC Ajax 2012–2015)

Match facts

København
• Ján Greguš serves a one-game ban following his dismissal on matchday one. 

• Federico Santander's second goal of the game salvaged a 2-2 draw at Randers FC on 21 September.

• Santander was on target again in the 2-0 home win against AGF Aarhus on Saturday as FCK stretched their unbeaten run to 20 matches in all competitions – a sequence dating back to 22 May.

• København have scored in each of their past 22 league encounters. The club record, 23, was set in 2005.

Club Brugge
• Brugge have recorded three successive wins since matchday one, the latest being 3-2 at R. Mouscron-Péruwelz on Friday. 

• Two penalties from Vossen, his first goals of the season, helped Brugge to a 3-2 home victory over KAS Eupen on 17 September.

• Preud'homme's men also recovered from a goal down to defeat Lommel United 3-1 in the Belgian Cup round of 32 three days later.

• Björn Engels had an operation on the shoulder he injured against Leicester and has been ruled out for the rest of the year.

• Lior Refaelov underwent surgery on his pubis on 22 August and is expected to be sidelined until November.