Basel coach Fink braced for Bayern reunion

FC Basel 1893 will need another strong home performance when coach Thorsten Fink welcomes his old club FC Bayern München on Matchday 2. Basel have won seven of their last eight fixtures at St. Jakob-Park in UEFA competition though this venue holds happy memories for a number of Bayern players.

• Having lost 2-1 at CFR 1907 Cluj on Matchday 1, Basel are in need of a positive result against a Bayern team who began by defeating AS Roma 2-0.

Previous meetings
• Though this is the clubs' first encounter in UEFA competition, Bayern did face a Basel XI in the 1962/63 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first round. Bayern won the 3-0 in Switzerland and advanced after the second leg was not played.

• Bayern won 3-1 at Basel in a friendly on 12 January this year. Marco Streller (10) struck for the hosts but Bayern replied through Hamit Altıntop (73) and Miroslav Klose (85, 87).

Match background
• Basel won five of six games at St. Jakob-Park in last season's UEFA Europa League and defeated Debreceni VSC and FC Sheriff in qualifying for the group stage this summer.

• Basel's most recent meeting with German opposition was a 1-1 draw at Hamburger SV in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage, Ivica Olić scoring for Hamburg.

• Klose scored when Basel last welcomed German visitors in a UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie against SV Werder Bremen in 2005/06. Basel were leading 2-0 before Klose's goal, Bremen winning the return 3-0.

• That was Basel's only home win in four attempts against Bundesliga sides, the other three all ending in defeat.

• Bayern recorded three away wins and three defeats during their run to last season's UEFA Champions League final.

• Bayern's only previous encounter with Swiss opposition was against Neuchâtel Xamax FC in the 1987/88 European Champion Clubs' Cup second round. Bayern lost the first leg 2-1 – Lothar Matthäus scoring an away goal – and in the Munich return needed late efforts from Hans Pflügler (87) and Jürgen Wegmann (90) to progress.

Team ties
• Fink was a member of Bayern's first-team squad from 1997 to 2003, winning three Bundesliga titles. He appeared as an 80th-minute substitute in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final loss to Manchester United FC but was not in the party for the 2001 final victory against Valencia CF.

• Bayern coach Louis van Gaal has come up against Grasshopper-Club six times. As AFC Ajax coach he met them in the 1995/96 and 1996/97 UEFA Champions League group stages, recording a home win and away draw first time round, then a home defeat and away win.

• While at AZ Alkmaar, Van Gaal faced Grasshoppers in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stages – a 1-0 home win and a 5-2 away success respectively.

• Alexander Frei played for BV Borussia Dortmund between 2006 and 2009, appearing in their 2-1 German Cup final defeat by Bayern in 2008.

• Çağdaş Atan spent 2008/09 with FC Energie Cottbus.

• Streller had four seasons at VfB Stuttgart, playing alongside Mario Gómez. Streller's stay included a loan spell at 1. FC Köln in 2005/06.

• Streller hit Switzerland's goal in a 3-1 friendly reverse against Germany in February 2007. Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Gómez were in the opposition, with Gómez scoring Germany's second goal.

• Gómez struck twice more with Klose also on target when Germany beat Switzerland 4-0 in a St. Jakob-Park friendly in March 2008. Lahm and Schweinsteiger also played, with Frei and Benjamin Huggel on the losing home side.

• Schweinsteiger and Klose both scored in successive games at St. Jakob-Park during UEFA EURO 2008, against Portugal in the quarter-finals and Turkey in the last four. Lahm hit Germany's 90th-minute winner in the latter match.

• Chipperfield was in the Australia team beaten 4-0 by Germany at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Klose and Thomas Müller were among Germany's scorers.

• Streller had a penalty saved when a Switzerland side also featuring Frei lost a shoot-out against a Ukraine team including Bayern's Anatoliy Tymoshchuk in the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup.