'Islanders' go head-to-head in Madeira

CD Nacional coach Manuel Machado will have the chance to avenge an old defeat when last season's beaten UEFA Cup finalists Werder Bremen kick off their UEFA Europa League Group L campaign in Funchal.

Previous meetings

• Nacional have never played German opponents before, while Bremen's previous two trips to Portugal produced a 3-2 defeat by FC Porto and – in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup round of 32 – a 1-0 win at SC Braga.

Match background

• Having competed in the last five UEFA Champions League group stages, Bremen never participated in a UEFA Cup group phase. However, they dropped into the latter competition as the third-placed side in their UEFA Champions League section on three occasions.

• Nacional are making their debut in the group stage of a UEFA club competition. Their two previous European campaigns ended with first-round losses in the 2004/05 and 2006/07 UEFA Cups.

• Prior to this season, Nacional had lost all four of their European matches played, but they broke their duck in style in the UEFA Europa League play-off, beating 2007/08 UEFA Cup winners FC Zenit St. Petersburg 4-3 in Madeira and then drawing 1-1 in Russia.

Team facts

• Both teams are islanders, technically-speaking. Nacional come from Madeira, in the mid-Atlantic, while Bremen take their name from the island ('Werder') in the River Weser on which they were formed.

• Machado is in his second spell in charge at Nacional. He started his coaching career in his native Guimaraes as a youth trainer at Vitória SC, eventually coaching the senior team there as well as A. Académica de Coimbra and Braga.

• Bremen are still under the command of Thomas Schaaf, who represented the club as a defender from 1978-95, stayed on as a coach and eventually took charge of the first team in 1999.

• Machado and Schaaf met in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup round of 32, with Bremen beating Machado's Braga 3-0 at home and 1-0 away. Machado's side had earlier held Bremen's Bundesliga rivals FC Bayern München to a 1-1 draw in the group stage of the same competition.

• Bremen boast Portuguese talent in the form of Hugo Almeida, one of the scorers in that 3-0 win against Braga.

• Bremen will host Athletic Club Bilbao on Matchday 2, while Nacional face a trip to FK Austria Wien on the same night, 1 October.