Athletic v Marseille background

Athletic Club will know their UEFA Europa League round of 32 tie against Olympique de Marseille is far from over given the French club won two of their three group stage away games, scoring nine goals.

Previous meetings
• The sides met for the first time in UEFA competition in the first leg. Athletic forward Aritz Aduriz scored the only goal, lobbing Steve Mandanda from around 35 metres.

• Athletic's record in seven fixtures against French clubs is W2 D1 L4 (W1 D1 L1 in Bilbao).

• Marseille's 12 games against Spanish teams have ended W2 D2 L8 (W0 D1 L4 in Spain). Those matches include a 2-0 loss to Valencia CF in the 2004 UEFA Cup final in Gothenburg.

Form guide
• Athletic are unbeaten in five European home matches this season (W4 D1).

• Athletic are two-time UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League final losers: Juventus defeated them on away goals after a 2-2 aggregate draw in 1977, and they also went down 3-0 to Club Atlético de Madrid in the 2012 decider. They were eliminated by Torino FC in last season's round of 32.

• OM have reached the final of the UEFA Cup twice, losing to Parma FC (3-0 in 1999) and Valencia (2-0 in 2004).

• Marseille most recently competed in the round of 32 in 2009/10, when they transferred across after finishing third in their UEFA Champions League section. Didier Deschamps' team then overcame FC København before succumbing to SL Benfica in the last 16.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Marseille to Bilbao is around 700km.

• Athletic's Aduriz is the top scorer in this season's UEFA Europa League with seven goals.

• Athletic are one of four clubs to have made it all the way from the third qualifying round to the round of 32 this term, along with AS Saint-Étienne, Borussia Dortmund and FC Krasnodar.

• Athletic boast French talent in the form of centre-back Aymeric Laporte, the second French player – after Bixente Lizarazu – to represent the Bilbao club.

• Marseille have a Spanish player – right-back Javier Manquillo, on loan from Atlético. Team-mates Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid CF) and Abdelaziz Barrada (Getafe FC) also have Liga experience.

The coaches
• Ernesto Valverde took charge of Athletic for a second time in June 2013. As a player, he enjoyed the most stable period of his career in Bilbao and promptly returned to the club after retiring, including as head coach from 2003 to 2005. Subsequently, he landed three Greek titles with Olympiacos and coached Villarreal CF and Valencia.

• Míchel, 52, replaced former Athletic boss Marcelo Bielsa as Marseille coach in August 2015. A two-time UEFA Cup winner with Real Madrid in the 1980s, he occupied the Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, Getafe and Sevilla FC helms in his native Spain and came to France after steering Olympiacos FC to two successive Greek titles.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Athletic lost their only previous UEFA penalty shoot-out:
L 5-3 H v CFR 1907 Cluj (2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup second round)

• Marseille's record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W2 L1:
L 5-3 N v FK Crvena Zvezda (1990/91 European Champion Clubs' Cup final)
W 4-1 H v KFC Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen (2005/06 UEFA Cup first round)
W 7-6 A v FC Twente (2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32)