Inter and PSV tangle for first time

Italian giants FC Internazionale Milano will be looking to get off the mark in Group G after their Matchday 1 away defeat by Turkish champions Fenerbahçe SK while PSV Eindhoven will be in confident mood following their 2-1 home victory over PFC CSKA Moskva.

• This will be the first time these two clubs have met in UEFA club competition and the Milan outfit will be aware that they have struggled to exert consistent superiority over opponents from the Netherlands. That dates all the way back to 1971/72 and Inter's first-ever meeting with Dutch opposition when, in the European Champion Clubs' Cup final staged in Rotterdam, AFC Ajax won 2-0 with Johan Cruyff scoring both goals.

• In those bygone days the Italian club had very little joy in these head-to-heads, losing three of the first four contests with the other game drawn. Their recent record is much improved however, winning three of the last five contests with two ending as draws. In a total of 15 fixtures their statistics have a neat symmetry: W5 D5 L5.

• At home the Nerazzurri have won four of the seven ties with two defeats. The best victory margin came when they beat FC Groningen 5-1 in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup second round in a game played at the Arena Della Vittoria.

• Last year's UEFA Champions League campaign began on a disappointing note for Inter as they lost both their first home and away games without managing to score a single goal. But after allowing FC Bayern München to return home with a 2-0 victory on Matchday 2, Roberto Mancini's team repaired matters significantly, beating both FC Spartak Moskva (2-1) and Sporting Clube de Portugal (1-0) to help them take second place in Group B.

• Their attempt to win a third UEFA European Champion Clubs' Cup, and their first since 1964/65, foundered in the first knockout round when after a 2-2 draw with Valencia CF at San Siro, their Spanish opponents progressed on away goals with the return leg finishing goalless.

• The loss to Bayern was only Inter's second at home in the competition in 16 matches, including qualifying, a sequence in which they have won eleven with three draws. The other reverse came at the hands of city rivals AC Milan in the 2004/05 quarter-final second leg.

• PSV are still looking for their first win in Italy, after two draws and five defeats, though their more recent results encourage the view that the elusive victory is not far away. Their first visit came in the 1969/70 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round, when they lost 1-0 to AS Roma and they followed that with three more defeats. In the last three trips however, PSV have twice returned with draws while at home against Italian foes they reign almost supreme – just one defeat (to AC Milan) in seven fixtures.

• They know the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza pretty well having faced AC Milan there twice in the last three seasons. Their 2004/05 UEFA Champions League semi-final was an epic affair. Two goals put Milan in pole position after the first leg at home, but in Eindhoven Ji-Sung Park and Phillip Cocu levelled the tie at 2-2. After Milan had regained the advantage, Cocu then made it 3-3 but the away goals rule put the Dutch side out. The following season they were paired in the same section as the 2005 runners-up and this time held the Milan team 0-0.

• Last season Ronald Koeman's side, who are on an unbroken run of eleven appearances in Europe’s premier club competition, made it to the quarter-finals before losing in both legs to eventual finalists Liverpool FC – a team they had also met in the group stage. The two defeats at Anfield were the only blemishes in the campaign away from home – they recorded victories at FC Girondins de Bordeaux and Galatasaray SK, and then gained a creditable 1-1 draw at the Arsenal Stadium to remove the London team from the first knockout round.