Braga braced for Standard arrival

R. Standard de Liège coach László Bölöni will find things much changed as he returns to Portugal to take on SC Braga in the UEFA Cup Round of 32, having guided Sporting Clube de Portugal to a domestic double in 2001/02.

• The Romanian led Sporting to Portuguese Liga and Cup success in his first season with the Lisbon club. However, he departed at the end of the following campaign after his side finished third in the table, a full 27 points adrift of champions FC Porto.

• Bölöni's Sporting were spearheaded by an excellent strike partnership of Mário Jardel and João Pinto. He also helped the likes of Ricardo Quaresma and Cristiano Ronaldo emerge from the youth ranks.

• Braga and Standard have never met in European club competition.

• Bölöni faced Braga four times during his time at the Sporting helm, only picking up a win at the final attempt after two defeats and a draw in his first three meetings with the Arsenalistas.

• Those two losses both came in Braga, 2-1 in the double-winning season and 4-2 in the following campaign. The two games were played at the Estádio 1° Maio, the predecessor to the spectacular Estádio Municipal de Braga which was built to host matches at UEFA EURO 2004™.

• Bölöni's assistant, Rolão Preto, is a Portuguese coach who also worked alongside him at Sporting. Standard's vice-president Luciano D'Onofrio also has a Portuguese connection, having been FC Porto's general manager when they beat FC Bayern München 2-1 to win the European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1986/87.

• This is Braga's first competitive game against Belgian opponents.

• Standard have played six games against Portuguese sides and their overall record reads W3 D2 L1. However, they have failed to win in their last three matches against Liga opposition.

• Standard's three games on Portuguese soil have ended in a win, a draw and a defeat. That lone victory dates back to a 3-2 European Champion Clubs' Cup triumph at Sporting on 29 October 1958.

• Braga coach Jorge Jesus has never faced Belgian opposition as a player or a coach, while this is Bölöni's first European game against a Portuguese side.

• Former Romanian international Bölöni played against Portugal twice during the course of his national-team career, losing 1-0 in Nantes at the 1984 UEFA European Championship and winning 3-2 in a friendly in Lisbon the following year. He never played against Portuguese opposition at club level.

• Cameroon-born striker Albert Meyong is Braga's top scorer in the UEFA Cup this season with five goals since the first round proper while midfielder Luis Aguiar has four.

• Standard's leading UEFA Cup scorers this season, Milan Jovanović, Dieudonné Mbokani and Igor De Carmargo, have hit two goals apiece.

• Standard's next goal will be their 100th in the UEFA Cup.

• Braga's 2-1 victory at SC Heerenveen in their final Group E encounter came on the back of two consecutive European defeats. Prior to a 1-0 away reverse to AC Milan, they had won seven games in succession without conceding a goal after starting their campaign in the third round of the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

• Of the eleven sides that progressed to the UEFA Cup from the UEFA Intertoto Cup this season, four are still in the competition: Braga, Aston Villa FC, RC Deportivo La Coruña and VfB Stuttgart. UEFA traditionally awards a plaque to the UEFA Intertoto Cup qualifiers that enjoy the longest UEFA Cup run.

• A 3-2 home defeat by VfL Wolfsburg in their last home fixture ended a run of four straight European wins at the Estádio Municipal de Braga for Jorge Jesus's charges.

• A 3-0 reverse at Stuttgart in their final group-stage match ended a five-game unbeaten run for Standard in European competition. Their UEFA Cup bid began after defeat by Liverpool FC in the third qualifying round of this season's UEFA Champions League.

• Standard have won just one of their last five European away games – a 1-0 success at FK Partizan in the group stage of this season's UEFA Cup. They recorded one draw and three defeats in their other four encounters.

• Standard, the Belgian champions, finished top of Group C to reach the Round of 32. Braga finished third in Group E, having taken seventh place in the Liga in 2007/08.

• Braga's Renteria and Standard's Reginal Goreux are within a booking of one-match suspensions.

• January squad changes:-
Braga
Players added to squad list: Edimar, Cristiano.
Players removed from squad list: Paweł Kieszek, Roland Linz, Andrés Madrid.
Standard
Players added to squad list: Cyriac Gohi Bi, Christian Benteke, Sinan Bolat, Hirac Yagan, Steve Otte, Rudy, Ngombo Mansoni.
Players removed from squad list: Alandson Da Silva, Dante Bonfim, Germain Marloye.

• Whoever emerges victorious will take on the winners of the Paris Saint-Germain FC v VfL Wolfsburg tie in the Round of 16 on 12 and 18/19 March, and will play the second leg at home.