Hamburg hoping to quell Rapid fire

SK Rapid Wien will look to continue their excellent home record against sides from neighbouring Germany when Hamburger SV visit the Ernst Happel Stadium in their opening UEFA Europa League Group C game.

Previous meetings

• While the clubs have never met and Hamburg have never played an Austrian team before in UEFA competition, Rapid have come up against sides from Germany 15 times. Indeed they held a proud unbeaten home record against German Bundesliga outfits before losing 1-0 to FC Bayern München in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. Their record in Vienna now reads P7 W5 D1 L1.

Match background

• Rapid never took part in a UEFA Cup group stage campaign. They have lost just one of their last seven European outings, and only one of their last eight home fixtures in UEFA club competition, winning the remaining seven.

• Hamburg successfully made their way through three UEFA Cup group stages, going on to reach the semi-finals last season. They go into the fixture against Rapid having won ten of their last 14 European matches.

Team facts

• Now Rapid coach, Peter Pacult scored twice for the club when they beat 1. FC Dynamo Dresden 5-0 in the home leg of their 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final. The future TSV 1860 München striker also played in the final defeat by Everton FC. He later coached both 1860 München and Dynamo Dresden.

• Rapid captain Steffen Hofmann is German. The former FC Bayern München trainee and 1860 München player is the only member of the squad to have any significant experience of German football.

• Hofmann and Hamburg midfielder Piotr Trochowski were trainees together at Bayern in the early part of this decade, both making regular appearances for the club's third division amateur side.

• Germany beat Austria 1-0 at the Ernst Happel Stadium at UEFA EURO 2008™, with defenders Jürgen Patocka and Markus Katzer – both unused substitutes – the only Rapid players involved. Hamburg's German internationals Trochowski and Marcell Jansen were consigned to the bench for the duration as well.

• Germany lost the EURO final at the same venue 1-0 to Spain. Hamburg's Marcell Jansen was a second-half substitute, while Piotr Trochowski did not make it off the bench.

• Rapid are playing their group stage games at the Ernst Happel Stadium rather than their own Gerhard Hanappi Stadium due to the high demand for tickets.

• Hamburg will host Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC on Matchday 2, while Rapid travel to Celtic FC on the same night, 1 October.