Anderlecht out to end Lyon run

Olympique Lyonnais are looking to book their tenth consecutive UEFA Champions League group-stage place but will have to plot a route past an RSC Anderlecht side desperate to return to Europe's top table after two unsuccessful qualifying campaigns.

• The two sides traded 1-0 home wins in their only previous encounters in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage. Brazilian midfielder Juninho Pernambucano decided the first game from the penalty spot in favour of Lyon before Anderlecht's Finnish defender Hannu Tihinen avenged the loss in Brussels.

• Sidney Govou and Anthony Réveillère contested both games for Lyon, while Daniel Zítka and Olivier Deschacht featured twice for Anderlecht. Current assistant coach Besnik Hasi also appeared for the Belgian outfit.

• Lyon's only other experience against Belgian opposition has come against Club Brugge KV in the UEFA Cup, with Club triumphant in 1975/76 and Lyon on top in 1998/99 and 2001/02. The Stade Gerland outfit won all three home legs.

• Anderlecht have twice eliminated FC Girondins de Bordeaux from the UEFA Cup in recent years, clinching victory in 2002/03 and 2007/08.

• Between those contests, Anderlecht came up against Claude Puel's LOSC Lille Métropole in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League group stage, drawing 1-1 in Brussels and 2-2 in France. Current Lyon players Jean II Makoun, Mathieu Bodmer and Michel Bastos appeared in both matches.

• Anderlecht's record in France reads two wins, four draws and one loss. Paris Saint-Germain FC are the only French side to have eliminated Anderlecht in Europe, in the UEFA Cup in 1992/93.

Match background

• After winning the Ligue 1 title seven years in succession, Lyon relinquished their crown to Bordeaux last term, finishing third and having to content themselves with a play-off round place.

• Les Gones have only failed once previously in UEFA Champions League qualifying, losing 3-0 on aggregate to NK Maribor in the third qualifying round in 1999/2000. The following season, they overcame FK Inter Bratislava to reach the group stage for the first time, going on to earn an automatic place every year since.

• A dramatic season in the Eerste Klasse ended with Anderlecht finishing level on points with R. Standard de Liège at the summit, necessitating a title play-off decider that Standard clinched 2-1 on aggregate.

• Defeat set up Ariël Jacobs' men with a third qualifying round tie against Turkish side Sivasspor. They promptly recorded a 5-0 home win, with Tom De Sutter twice on target, before Jelle Van Damme scored in a 3-1 away loss.

• Anderlecht have contested seven group stages since 1994/95, successfully passing through the qualifying rounds on five occasions (they also took part in the 1993/94 group stage which featured just two sections).

• Their most recent appearance came in 2006/07 and since then they have succumbed to Fenerbahçe SK (2007/08) and FC BATE Borisov (2008/09) before the competition proper. They likewise fell to Ferencvárosi TC in 1995/96.

Team ties

• Anderlecht defender Van Damme appeared for Belgium in a friendly against France in Brussels on 18 February 2004, with Jean-Alain Boumsong and Govou both featuring for the visitors, who won 2-0.