Leverkusen hope to build on Genk friendly result

Bayer 04 Leverkusen begin their home campaign in Group E with the visit of KRC Genk as they seek to continue a three-match unbeaten run against Belgian opposition.

• The German side went down 2-0 at Chelsea FC on matchday one, when Genk earned a goalless draw against Valencia CF.

Match background
• It is the first competitive meeting between the teams although they did come face to face for a friendly on 23 July this year. Leverkusen came out on top 4-1, Eren Derdiyok scoring a hat-trick.

• In three previous games against Belgian opponents Leverkusen have still to taste defeat. Their most recent contest, a 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stage away game against Club Brugge KV, ended 1-1.

• The other matches – against K. Lierse SK in the 1997/98 UEFA Champions League group stage – were won 1-0 at home and 2-0 away.

• Genk, in the group stage for the first time in nine years, were 2-1 winners at Borussia Dortmund on their last trip to Germany in the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup third round. Their only other win in six fixtures with Bundesliga opposition came against MSV Duisburg in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round, a 5-0 home second-leg success completing a 6-1 aggregate triumph.

• That is Genk's sole home win against German opponents; in the two other games, they lost 5-2 to SV Werder Bremen in November 2000 and 1-0 against Dortmund in July 2004.

• This is Leverkusen's seventh UEFA Champions League participation. In their latest group campaign seven years ago, last season's Bundesliga runners-up won all three home matches, beating Real Madrid CF 3-0, AS Roma 3-1 and FC Dynamo Kyiv 3-0. In the round of 16 they lost 3-1 home and away to eventual champions Liverpool FC.

• Genk reached the group stage in dramatic circumstances, the Belgian champions overturning Maccabi Haifa FC's 2-1 first-leg advantage in the play-offs to win by the same score in the return. With no addition to the 3-3 aggregate score in extra time, it went to the shoot-out, Genk winning 4-1 thanks to two saves from goalkeeper László Köteles.

• Coach Frank Vercauteren stepped down after the first leg against Haifa. Pierre Denier was in caretaker charge for the return before Mario Been was appointed as Vercauteren's permanent successor on 30 August.

• The Belgian side defeated FK Partizan in the third qualifying round, winning 2-1 at home with goals from Jelle Vossen and Marvin Ogunjimi. Vossen's penalty equaliser earned a 1-1 second-leg draw in Belgrade.

• On their only previous participation, in 2002/03, Genk finished bottom of their group with four points. On their travels they lost 6-0 at Real Madrid but then gained draws at Roma (0-0) and AEK Athens FC (1-1).

Team ties
• Been scored the second goal for Feyenoord in a 2-2 draw with Leverkusen in a 1987/88 UEFA Cup third round tie. Feyenoord lost the away leg 1-0 against a team who went on to win that season's competition.

• Daniel Pudil and Michal Kadlec are international team-mates with the Czech Republic.

• In a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Tel Aviv in September 2008, Tranquillo Barnetta played for Switzerland in a 2-2 draw against Israel, who brought on Elyaniv Barda after an hour.

• The return game in Basle 13 months later ended goalless. Derdiyok and Barnetta featured for Switzerland while Barda played for Israel.

• Germany beat Belgium 2-0 in an August 2008 friendly in Nuremberg. Simon Rolfes was in the German side while Thomas Buffel and Stijn Huysegems appeared as substitutes for the visitors.

• Rolfes was a substitute for Germany as they lost 3-0 to the Czech Republic in a UEFA EURO 2008 qualifier played in Munich in October 2007. Pudil started for the winning team.