Ajax and Austria meet again

AFC Ajax will not have fond memories of their last meeting with FK Austria Wien as they prepare for their UEFA Cup Group F tie.

• Ajax and Austria will play each other for a third time but the Amsterdam side side will have few fond memories of their previous meetings in a two-legged 1989/90 UEFA Cup first round tie.

• Austria won the home leg 1-0, with Josef Degeorgi scoring the only goal after 18 minutes against an Ajax side featuring the likes of Frank and Ronald de Boer, Aron Winter, Bryan Roy and a 20-year-old Dennis Bergkamp. Jan Wouters cancelled out Degeorgi's goal in the second leg, sending the match into extra time, when Hannes Pleva scored again for Austria. However, the match was subsequently abandoned after Austria goalkeeper Franz Wohlfahrt was struck by an iron bar thrown from the stands.

• The game was subsequently awarded as a 3-0 win for Austria. Ajax were banned from European competition for a year and ordered to play their next three home games at last 300km away from their home stadium.

• Austria started their Group F campaign with a 4-1 defeat at home against SV Zulte Waregem.

• This is Ajax's first game in the UEFA Cup group stage this season.

• Austria boast Dutch talent in the form of reserve goalkeeper Jelle ten Rouwelaar and defender Delano Hill.

• Former BVO Emmen and PSV Eindhoven goalkeeper Ten Rouwelaar also played on loan at FC Groningen, FC Twente, FC Zwolle and FC Eindhoven before joining Austria this summer.

• Hill played for Dutch sides FC Den Bosch, RKC Waalwijk and Willem II before joining German side FC Hansa Rostock. He joined Austria in the summer of 2005.

• Austria's Czech midfielder Štěpán Vachoušek will come up against international team-mate Zdeněk Grygera.

• Aside from their two meetings with Ajax, Austria have met Dutch opposition on only one other occasion, beating FC Utrecht 2-1 away in the 2004 UEFA Cup group stage. Czech Libor Sionko, now of Rangers FC, and Norwegian Sigurd Rushfeldt, now of Tromsø IL, scored the goals.

• Austria have played 173 games in European competition (56 wins, 46 draws and 71 defeats) while Ajax have played 266 (139 wins, 53 draws and 74 defeats).

• Aside from their meetings with Austria, they have met Austrian opponents on six other occasions, winning three times and drawing the remaining fixtures. Overall, their record in Austria reads played four, won one, drawn two, lost one, with their most recent trip seeing them draw 1-1 against Grazer AK in a 2003/04 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie which they went on to win 3-2 on aggregate.

• Zulte Waregem take on AC Sparta Praha in Matchday 2's other Group F game.