Nordsjælland set sights on Chelsea scalp

FC Nordsjælland's first home game in the UEFA Champions League provides them with a mouth-watering encounter against 2012 winners Chelsea FC in the second round of Group E fixtures.

• While Chelsea let slip a two-goal lead at home to Juventus on matchday one to draw 2-2, Nordsjælland went down 2-0 at FC Shakhtar Donetsk on their competition debut.

Previous meetings
• It is the Danish champions' first competitive meeting with English opposition, while Chelsea have good memories of their two previous visits to the Scandinavian country.

• In each case they faced FC København and won both matches without conceding a goal. They triumphed 2-0 in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League round of 16 and 1-0 in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round. At home both games ended all square, 1-1 in 1998 and 0-0 13 years later.

Match background
• Nordsjælland won their maiden Danish Superliga title with a 3-0 victory against AC Horsens on the final day of last season to hold off the challenge of København, who had picked up the prize in the previous three years.

• Nordsjælland have had four campaigns in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League but only managed to get through to the first round proper twice. On each occasion they lost to Greek opponents, going down to Panionios GSS in 2003/04 and Olympiacos FC in 2008/09.

• Last year the Farum club were knocked out of the UEFA Europa League in the play-offs, beaten 2-1 by Sporting Clube de Portugal in the second leg after the game in Denmark had ended goalless.

• The 2011/12 campaign proved historic for Chelsea as they finally tasted UEFA Champions League glory at the tenth attempt, overcoming FC Bayern München on the German side's own ground. It was also the first time a London club had lifted the trophy.

• Didier Drogba scored a late equaliser to take the final to extra time and then converted the decisive penalty to win the shoot-out 4-3, the Ivorian striker's last kick for the club as he joined Chinese side FC Shanghai Shenhua in June.

• Chelsea have finished as group winners in eight of their ten UEFA Champions League campaigns, including last season, and qualified for the knockout rounds in the other two years.

• Chelsea failed to win any of their away games in last year's group stage, drawing at Valencia CF and KRC Genk before going down 2-1 at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. That was only their second reverse in their last nine away group games, four of which they have won.

Team ties
• Anders Christiansen was part of the Denmark Under-21 team which lost 4-0 to England in a friendly international in Viborg on 24 March 2011.

• Kasper Lorentzen was in the Denmark U21 side that suffered a 1-0 friendly loss against England in Herning on 16 August 2005.

• Lorentzen's Denmark lost 3-0 to England in a 2004 UEFA European U19 Championship qualifier in Kidricevo, Slovenia. Søren Christensen appeared as a substitute.

• On 26 March 2005, Christensen was part of the Denmark team that lost 1-0 to England in a 2005 European U19 Championship qualifier in Crewe.

• Andreas Laudrup was introduced as a substitute when Denmark's U17s defeated England 1-0 in a tournament in Torshavn, Faroe Islands, on 5 December 2006.

• Lorentzen was part of the Denmark team which drew 0-0 against England in Hvidovre in the UEFA European U17 Championship on 1 May 2002.