CFR out to complete job against Basel

CFR 1907 Cluj recorded a second 2-1 victory against FC Basel 1893 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off and will look to confirm a place in the group stage in Romania.

• The Swiss side, who reached the round of 16 in 2011/12, looked well placed to take control of the tie when Marco Streller's spectacular volley gave them the lead in the 44th minute of the first leg, but a pair of Modou Sougou goals (66, 71) turned the tie in favour of their Romanian opponents.

• Basel had previously gone down 2-1 at CFR in their opening 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage fixture, although the Swiss side did win the return at St. Jakob-Park 1-0.

Previous meetings
• Ionuţ Rada and Lacina Traoré scored twice inside 12 minutes to set up CFR's victory over Basel on 15 September 2010. Valentin Stocker pulled a goal back but it was not enough.

• CFR were coached at the time by Sorin Cârţu with Thorsten Fink in charge of Basel. The lineups were:
CFR: Nuno Claro, Panin, Mureşan, Dică, Traoré (Sforzini 79), Alcântara, Rafael Bastos (De Zerbi 54), Culio, Cadú, Hora (Koné 54), Rada
Basel: Costanzo, Atan, Huggel, Streller, Yapi, A Frei, Stocker (Chipperfield 73), Shaqiri, Abraham, Safari (Tembo 73), Inkoom.

• Federico Almerares's 15th-minute strike settled the encounter in Switzerland on 23 November that year, a result that confirmed the elimination of a CFR side who lost Felice Piccolo to a red card after 88 minutes. The result kept alive Basel's hopes of progress, though they would eventually finish third.

• The teams that night were:
Basel: Costanzo, Inkoom, Abraham, Ferati, Safari, Tembo (Zanni 90), Cabral, Yapi, Shaqiri (Xhaka 87), Frei (Atan 90+2), Almerares.
CFR: Nuno Claro, Tony, Cadú, Piccolo, Rada, Culio (Sforzini 74), Tomas Costa, Kivuvu, Leo Veloso (Koné 58), Traoré (Bjelanović 46), Rafael.

Match background
• CFR's first-leg triumph was the first time a Romanian club had won in Switzerland in UEFA competition; the previous four victories had all come at home. CFR were also the first Romanian club to win in Italy with a 2-1 success at AS Roma in the 2008/09 group stage.

• Basel are bidding to reach the UEFA Champions League group stage for the third consecutive campaign and, in the process, build on their success of last season, when they reached the last 16 for the first time since 2002/03.

• CFR previously featured in the group stage in 2008/09 and 2010/11.

• Basel won through to these play-offs by beating FC Flora Tallinn 5-0 on aggregate, then scraping past Molde FK 2-1 in the third qualifying round – albeit only after Yann Sommer had saved a last-minute penalty in the second leg. Ioan Andone's CFR, for their part, were 3-1 aggregate winners against FC Slovan Liberec.

• Basel had never faced Romanian opposition before their 2010/11 encounters with CFR but subsequently took on FC Oţelul Galaţi in last term's UEFA Champions League group stage – and posted home (2-1) and away (3-2) victories.

Team ties
• CFR's Vasile Maftei and Rada helped Rapid Bucureşti beat a Stade Rennais FC side featuring Basel's Alexander Frei 2-0 in a UEFA Cup group stage match in 2005/06. Another current CFR player, Mihai Mincă, was the substitute goalkeeper that night, and he played along with Maftei and Rada in a subsequent 2-1 loss at Streller's VfB Stuttgart in the same section.

• Basel's Philipp Degen was an unused substitute for Liverpool FC in a 1-0 win against an FC Unirea Urziceni side including Maftei in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League round of 32.

• Basel's Sommer and Valentin Stocker featured in Switzerland's 1-0 home friendly loss to Romania in May this year but there were no CFR players involved.