All or nothing for Stuttgart and Unirea

Second place in Group G will be on the line when FC Unirea Urziceni and VfB Stuttgart meet in Germany on Matchday 6, with the Romanian champions enjoying a two-point cushion over their final opponents.

• Both teams recorded victories on Matchday 5, Unirea overcoming section leaders Sevilla FC 1-0 in Bucharest while Stuttgart ran out 2-0 winners at Rangers FC, who are therefore certain to finish in fourth place.

• Unirea have eight points, two fewer than Sevilla but two more than Stuttgart, who must consequently beat the Romanian side to stay in the competition. A point will do for Unirea and three would take them into the last 16 as group winners should Sevilla lose to Rangers in Spain.

• After one win in their last 13 games in all competitions, Stuttgart parted company with coach Markus Babbel on Sunday, Christian Gross taking over. Babbel's assistants Rainer Widmayer and Alexander Zorniger have also left the club.

Previous meeting
• Stuttgart took an early lead in the reverse fixture at the Steaua Stadium on 29 September thanks to Serdar Tasci's fifth-minute strike. Unirea had failed to score in any of their previous games in UEFA club competition but finally got off the mark at the fourth attempt three minutes into the second half through Dacian Varga.

Match background
• Stuttgart qualified for their third group-stage campaign after coming through a play-off test against another Romanian side, FC Timişoara. It finished goalless at the VfB Arena after Markus Babbel's team had won 2-0 away.

• In their only other fixture against Romanian opponents, Stuttgart beat FC Rapid Bucureşti 2-1 at home in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage.

• As for Unirea, their only previous away meeting with a German outfit produced a 0-0 draw at Hamburger SV in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup first round, their debut in UEFA competition. They bowed out of the competition after losing the second leg 2-0 at home.

• Undone 3-1 by Sevilla on Matchday 3, Stuttgart have lost four and drawn one of their last six UEFA Champions League home games since a 3-2 win against Rangers on 27 November 2007.

Team ties
• Stuttgart's Romanian striker Ciprian Marica will come up against international team-mates Vasile Maftei and Iulian Apostol.

• In last season's UEFA Cup first round, a Rapid Bucureşti team featuring Maftei in their ranks lost to VfL Wolfsburg. The defender scored in the home leg, which ended 1-1 after the current Bundesliga champions had won 1-0 in Germany.

• Maftei was also in the Rapid team that succumbed 2-1 at Stuttgart in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage.

• Unirea coach Dan Petrescu was in the Chelsea side that beat Stuttgart 1-0 to win the 1998 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in Stockholm.

• Petrescu scored Chelsea's third goal in a 6-1 league win at a Tottenham Hotspur FC team managed by Gross on 6 December 1997 and also featured in a 2-0 home Chelsea victory the following April.

• Apostol played for Romania in their 5-0 defeat by Serbia in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in Belgrade on 10 October this year. Stuttgart's Zdravko Kuzmanović appeared as a substitute in the 64th minute and scored Serbia's third goal 13 minutes later.