Debrecen hope to bow out on a high

Debreceni VSC will hope to bow out on a high note when they conclude their maiden UEFA Champions League campaign with a Group E visit to Olympique Lyonnais, who are looking to top the section.

• While the Hungarian champions are still searching for their first points, Lyon need a victory to have any chance of overhauling ACF Fiorentina at the summit. The Italian side hold a two-point advantage and will guarantee first place with a win at Liverpool FC. Should the Viola draw, top spot would be decided by goal difference, with Lyon currently on +5, one strike shy of Fiorentina's balance. If that tally finishes level, goals scored will be decisive, leaving Lyon to overhaul their current four-goal deficit.

Previous meeting
• The Hungarian titleholders suffered a sobering 4-0 home defeat when the teams met in Budapest on 29 September. Playing Hungarian opposition for the first time, Lyon recorded their biggest away victory in the UEFA Champions League, speeding into a three-goal lead inside 24 minutes – Kim Källström, Miralem Pjanić and Sidney Govou all scoring – before Bafétimbi Gomis added a fourth six minutes after the restart.

Match background
• Debrecen will travel to the Stade de Gerland hoping to avoid a repeat of their only previous visit to France, when they went down 5-1 at FC Girondins de Bordeaux in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup first round.

• Defender Csaba Bernáth is the only survivor in the Debrecen ranks from that heavy loss, which set the Hungarian side on their way to a 6-4 aggregate reverse.

• However, qualifiers apart, Lyon have won just three of their last ten home games in the competition proper over the last three years – and needed a last-minute Lisandro goal to save them from defeat against Liverpool on Matchday 4.

• Debrecen are one of only two teams – the other being Maccabi Haifa FC – still seeking a first point in this group stage.

• Eight teams have ended a UEFA Champions League group stage without a single point. They are:
FC Dynamo Kyiv in 2007/08
PFC Levski Sofia in 2006/07
SK Rapid Wien in 2005/06
RSC Anderlecht in 2004/05
Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2002/03 (second group stage)
FC Spartak Moskva in 2002/03
Fenerbahçe SK in 2001/02
1. FC Košice in 1997/98

• The Hungarian champions have conceded 15 goals to date and another heavy defeat could threaten the record jointly held by Dynamo (2007/08) and Ferencvárosi TC (1995/96) of 19 goals shipped in a group stage.

Team ties
• Lyon's Jean-Alain Boumsong, Govou and Anthony Réveillère were in the France side that earned a 2-1 friendly win over a Hungary team featuring Debrecen defender László Bodnár in Metz in May 2005.

• Lyon midfielder Källström scored for Sweden and Debrecen forward Gergely Rudolf for Hungary when Sweden beat Hungary 2-1 in a FIFA World Cup qualifying tie in Solna on 10 September last year. Debrecen's Zoltán Szélesi also featured in that match for Hungary, with Bodnár an unused substitute.

• Szélesi made 41 league appearances for French club RC Strasbourg between 2007 and 2009.

• Rudolf began his professional career with French outfit AS Nancy-Lorraine. He spent two seasons in their first-team squad between 2005 and 2007 but made only one starting appearance in Ligue 1.

• Debrecen's Paris-born forward Adamo Coulibaly has never played top-level football in his home country. Three years ago he was working night shifts at a Peugeot factory in Poissy on the outskirts of Paris. After leaving AS Poissy in 2007 for Belgian club K. Sint-Truidense VV, he moved on to R. Antwerp FC, before signing for Debrecen this summer.