Ajax aim to kick-start title bid against Žilina

Four-time European champions AFC Ajax will hope that they will not be weighed down by their past glories as they take on Slovakian contenders MŠK Žilina in their first UEFA Cup group-stage home game of 2008/09.

• This is Ajax and Žilina's first meeting in UEFA club competition.

• Ajax have played four games against Slovakian sides in European club competition, registering three wins and a defeat. They have won both of their home matches against clubs from Slovakia by an aggregate score of 9-1.

• Žilina have played one tie against Dutch opposition, taking on FC Utrecht in the first round of the 2003/04 UEFA Cup. They lost 2-0 in the Netherlands in the first leg and 4-0 at home in the return.

• They are thus yet to score a goal or record anything other than a defeat against Eredivisie opponents.

• Ajax coach Marco van Basten has come up against Slovakian opposition before – in his playing days. His AC Milan side won 1-0 at ŠK Slovan Bratislava in the 1992/93 UEFA Champions League.

• Ajax lost their opener 2-1 at Aston Villa FC, with Thomas Vermaelen scoring their only goal. Žilina lost 2-1 at home against Hamburger SV on the same night, with Emil Rilke registering their consolation effort.

• Hired after the first round following the dismissal of Pavel Vrba, Žilina coach Dušan Radolský has now gone four European games without a win, having failed to win his final three UEFA competition games with his previous club, Poland's Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski.

• Ajax can ill afford to be complacent, however, having lost three of their last five home games in UEFA club competition.

• Žilina, meanwhile, have gone undefeated in their last six European away games, a run comprising three wins and three draws.

• Žilina will have Róbert Jež available again with the midfielder having served a two-match ban.

• SK Slavia Praha are at home against Villa in Matchday 2's other Group F game. Hamburg are the only team in the section not in action on Thursday.