Lyon need La Real miracle at the Anoeta

Olympique Lyonnais have a mountain to climb when they visit Real Sociedad de Fútbol for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off tie seeking to overturn a two-goal deficit.

• The San Sebastian club took a big step towards only their second group stage appearance when Antoine Griezmann (17) and Haris Seferovic (50) scored to earn them a 2-0 victory in the first leg in France.

• For La Real, it marked a spectacular return to UEFA competition after a decade's absence and came on the very ground where their last campaign had ended, when Lyon eliminated them from the UEFA Champions League in 2003/04. They will now enter the second leg against Rémi Garde’s visitors determined to finish off a side who have never before recovered from a first-leg home loss in Europe.

Past meetings
• Lyon triumphed 2-0 on aggregate when the clubs met in that aforementioned round of 16 tie in 2004. Gabriel Schürrer's own goal (18) at the Anoeta gave Paul Le Guen's men a first-leg advantage they doubled in the return through Juninho Pernambucano (77) to progress to the quarter-finals for the first time.

• The lineups for the first leg on 25 February 2004 were:
La Real: Westerveld, Kvarme, López Rekarte, Aranzabal, Schürrer, Xabi Alonso (Aranburu 74), Karpin, Gabilondo (Lee 64), Alkiza, Nihat, Kovačević.
Lyon: Coupet, Deflandre, Müller, Sartre (Berthod 66), Edmílson, Essien, Diarra, Juninho, Malouda, Govou (Dhorasoo 80), Luyindula.

• That was La Real's only previous tie against a Ligue 1 outfit and came during the reign of their French coach Reynald Denoueix. It was another Frenchman, Philippe Montanier, who guided the club to fourth place last season before departing for Stade Rennais FC and passing on the reins to his former assistant, Jagoba Arrasate.

• The teams drew 1-1 in a pre-season friendly in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on 20 July last year, Griezmann putting La Real ahead (61) with Jimmy Briand replying 16 minutes later.

Match background
• Lyon must do something they have never achieved before and overturn a first-leg home defeat if they are to reach the group stage. Twice before they have been in this position – against NK Maribor in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round (h 0-1, a 0-2) and against Trabzonspor in the 1991/92 UEFA Cup second round (3-4 h, 1-4 a).

• Only once in ten attempts overall have Lyon overcome a first-leg deficit in UEFA's main club competitions – in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup third round when they beat Club Brugge KV 3-0 at home after a 4-1 away reverse.

• La Real have never let slip a two-goal lead in UEFA competition while they have won all three European ties in which they gained a first-leg victory away from home – against AC Sparta Praha in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup first round (4-2 a, 1-0 h), Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup second round (2-1 a, 0-0 h) and Víkingur Reykjavík in the 1982/83 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round (1-0 a, 3-2 h).

• La Real's last home victory in continental competition was in September 2003 when Darko Kovačević earned them a 1-0 success against Olympiacos FC in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Lyon are looking to return to the UEFA Champions League group stage after their run of 12 successive appearances ended last season, when they competed in the UEFA Europa League. Before facing La Real, they defeated Switzerland's Grasshopper Club in the third qualifying round, winning 1-0 both home and away.

• Lyon won on their last trip to Spain, a 3-2 success against La Real's local rivals Athletic Club in last term's UEFA Europa League group stage. The Ligue 1 side had not won on Spanish soil in seven attempts since beating La Real in 2004 but ended the long wait as Bafétimbi Gomis, Yoann Gourcuff and Alexandre Lacazette all scored in Bilbao.

• Lyon have an overall away record in Spain of W2 D3 L6.

• In the UEFA Champions League in 2008/09 the French club lost to FC Barcelona in the round of 16 and then, at the same stage, beat Real Madrid CF in 2009/10 and lost to them the following year.

• La Real's shoot-out record in UEFA competition is:
3-4 v FK Partizan, 1990/91 UEFA Cup second round
2-4 v VfL Stuttgart, 1988/89 UEFA Cup quarter-finals

• Lyon's record is:
3-4 v APOEL FC, 2011/12 UEFA Champions League round of 16
2-4 v PSV Eindhoven, 2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals

Team ties
• Garde played in the France team that became the first to beat Spain in Seville when winning a EURO '92 qualifier 2-1 in October 1991.

• Griezmann was born and brought up in Macon – an hour's drive from Lyon – and was in the youth ranks of AS Saint-Étienne before joining La Real in 2005. He is a France Under-21 team-mate of Lacazette and Clément Grenier and also played with Gueïda Fofana and Mathieu Gorgelin at youth level. He was part of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship-winning squad in France in 2010.

• During 2010/11 Mouhamadou Dabo made 24 Liga appearances for Sevilla FC, one of which came in a 3-1 home win against La Real.

• Miguel Lopes made 21 appearances in the Spanish second division for Real Betis Balompié during their successful 2010/11 promotion push.

• Yassine Benzia scored France's first goal in their 2-1 extra-time victory against Iker Hernández's Spain in the semi-finals of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in July.

• Carlos Vela was in the Mexico team that beat France 2-0 in the 2010 FIFA World Cup group stage. Gourcuff was an unused substitute for Les Bleus.

• La Real's French-born Algerian international Liassine Cadamuro-Bentaïba joined from FC Sochaux-Montbéliard in 2008.