Strasbourg seek repeat performance

RC Strasbourg are seeking at least a repeat of their comfortable 2-0 victory against FC Basel 1893 in the UEFA Cup group stages when they welcome the Swiss side to La Meinau. Amara Diané and Arthur Boka were both on target as the Ligue 1 strugglers surprisingly won 2-0 when the sides met in October, but Basel earned revenge - by the same scoreline - at St. Jakob-Park in the first leg of their UEFA Cup last 16 tie. Argentinian midfielder Delgado and Zdravko Kuzmanovic both scored as Christian Gross' team earned a significant advantage.

• A repeat of their 2-1 victory against Strasbourg's Ligue 1 rivals AS Monaco FC would suffice for Basel. Then, David Degen's 78th-minute strike set Basel on course in Switzerland - their first ever win, not to mention goals, against French opposition in UEFA club competition. They still had much to do in the second leg in the Principality, especially after Christian Vieri levelled matters with an early spot-kick. But Daniel Majstorovic restored Basel's aggregate lead at the start of the second half as the team booked a place in the last 16.

• Such an achievement looked unlikely when Basel opened their UEFA Cup group stage account with defeat against Strasbourg. They bounced back with narrow wins against FK Crvena Zvezda and Tromsø IL but had no answer to AS Roma in their final group outing as they lost 3-1. However, with Strasbourg holding Crvena Zvezda elsewhere, the side from the north of Switzerland still qualified.

• Life was much more comfortable for Strasbourg, whose position at the wrong end of Ligue 1 has been in stark contrast to an impressive European campaign that brought comfortable progress from a difficult-looking group. Diané and Boka laid down the platform with goals inside the first 25 minutes against Basel, and they then defeated Tromsø by the same margin before drawing their final two games against Roma and Crvena Zvezda to qualify as section winners. Their reward was a tie with PFC Litex Lovech and they never looked back after Ulrich Le Pen's early goal in Bulgaria, going on to claim a 2-0 aggregate win.

• Despite lying so close to the Swiss border, Strasbourg had never before met opponents from the country in UEFA club competition. For Gross's team the Strasbourg defeat earlier in the competition had stretched their record against French sides to three games without a goal, before David Degen put an end to that.

• Basel were also drawn against French opposition in the Round of 32 last season, when they were paired with LOSC Lille Métropole. After the first leg ended all-square at St. Jakob-Park, goals from Matt Moussilou and Milenko Ačimovič earned Lille a place in the last 16.