Basel seek salve for battered pride

FC Basel 1893 may have only pride left to play for but a victory against Sporting Clube de Portugal would at least give their supporters something to cheer about at the conclusion of an unhappy UEFA Champions League campaign.

• Rock bottom of Group C, the Swiss champions have lost their two previous home games in the section and, across the 32 teams in the competition, only FC Steaua Bucureşti can match their record of a solitary point so far.

• A 5-0 defeat at FC Shakhtar Donetsk on Matchday 5 ended the Basel's faint hopes of claiming third place in the group and, following an identical reverse at home to FC Barcelona, it left them with the worst defensive statistics in the competition – 15 goals conceded at an average of three a game.

• If Christian Gross' hosts are seeking a salve for their battered pride, second-placed Sporting will also want to end the group stage on a positive note after a sobering 5-2 defeat at home against Barcelona in their last outing.

• The Portuguese side may have already secured their progress to the last 16 but that result brought them back to earth with a bump and they will travel to Switzerland determined to make amends.

• Both sides had started their campaigns with defeats, Basel losing at home to Shakhtar and Sporting going down 3-1 in Barcelona. But while the Portuguese side recovered to win their back-to-back games with Shakhtar, Basel took just one point from their two matches against Barça.

• Paulo Bento's side should not be short of confidence ahead of their trip to Switzerland having beaten Basel three times already this year.

• Sporting prevailed 2-0 when the teams met at the Estádio José Alvalade on 1 October, taking a 55th-minute lead through Reto Zanni's own goal before Derlei confirmed the victory four minutes from time.

• Prior to that, Sporting had beaten Basel 5-0 on aggregate in the UEFA Cup Round of 32 last term. Two Simon Vukčević strikes (8, 58) earned the Lisbon club a two-goal advantage in the first leg and they completed the job in handsome fashion by winning 3-0 in Switzerland on 21 February through goals from Bruno Pereirinha (2) and Liedson (41, 51).

• The full lineups for that previous contest in Basel were:
Basel: Louis Crayton, Reto Zanni, Daniel Majstorovic, François Marque, Ronny Hodel, Benjamin Huggel (Papa Malick Ba), David Degen, Ivan Ergić (Marko Perović), Carlitos, Eduardo (Fabian Frei), Eren Derdiyok.
Sporting: Rui Patrício, Abel, Tonel, Anderson Polga (Gladstone), Leandro Grimi (Ronny), Bruno Pereirinha, Leandro Romagnoli (Pontus Farnerud), Miguel Veloso, João Moutinho, Rodrigo Tiuí, Liedson.

• Basel had never faced Portuguese opposition before 2008 but this will be their sixth match-up with a Liga side in the space of eleven months given they also met Vitória SC in the third qualifying round in August, a tie they won 2-1 on aggregate.

• Sporting coach Bento made his European debut as a player for CF Estrela da Amadora against Swiss opposition in the shape of Neuchâtel Xamax FC. After both legs of that 1990/91 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first-round tie ended in 1-1 draws, Bento took his side's fourth spot-kick in the deciding penalty shoot-out and it proved the winner as Xamax players missed either side of him to give Estrela a 4-3 success.

• Basel striker Eren Derdiyok was in the Switzerland side that defeated Portugal in a UEFA EURO 2008™ group match on 15 June. Sporting's Hélder Postiga and Miguel Veloso were in Portugal's starting lineup and João Moutinho appeared as a second-half substitute.

• Sporting midfielder Fábio Rochemback was in the Middlesbrough FC team that got the better of Basel in a dramatic UEFA Cup quarter-final tie in 2005/06. Basel led 2-0 after the home leg and then scored another goal in the return but the English side fought back to win 4-1 on the night, 4-3 on aggregate.

• Basel boast Portuguese talent in the form of winger Carlitos, who was born in Lisbon and played eleven league games for Sporting's local rivals SL Benfica between 2004 and 2006. The former GD Estoril-Praia player spent time on loan with Guimarães and Swiss side FC Sion before joining Basel in summer 2007.

• The draw for the UEFA Champions League first knockout round will take place at 12.00CET on Friday 19 December at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Group winners will be paired against runners-up from different sections with the second-placed teams playing the first leg at home. Clubs from the same associations cannot be drawn together.