CFR and FCK ready to tread new ground

The first night of action in UEFA Europa League Group K brings FC København to Romania to face CFR 1907 Cluj, who competed in the UEFA Champions League group stage last season.

Previous meetings

• The two sides have not met before, while CFR have never played a Danish side and København – in their current incarnation – have yet to come up against Romanian opposition.

Match background

• Deposed Romanian champions CFR never played in the UEFA Cup group stage. However, they did compete in last season's UEFA Champions League group phase, triumphing 2-1 at AS Roma on Matchday 1 before finishing bottom of their section.

• A 2-1 play-off round win against FK Sarajevo ended a five-game run without a home victory for CFR, stretching back to the semi-finals of the 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

• København competed in the last two UEFA Cup group stages, missing the cut in 2007/08 but making it to the Round of 32 last season.

• København matched their biggest European away win in their first overseas game of 2009/10, prevailing 6-0 against Montenegro's FK Mogren in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round.

Team facts

• CFR – the intials stand for Căile Ferate Române, Romania's national railway – are coached by former SC Braga and FC Porto right-back António Conceição, more widely known as Toni. He led CFR to Romanian Cup success last season.

• København are led by former Norwegian international Ståle Solbakken, who represented the club as a midfielder at the end of a career which also took in spells at Hamarkameratene, Lillestrøm SK, Wimbledon FC and Aalborg BK. He won two Danish titles as a player and last season won his third since becoming a coach in 2006, making five in total.

• Solbakken's playing career came to an abrupt end at København when he suffered a heart attack in training in March 2001. Despite being pronounced clinically dead, he recovered and now has a pacemaker fitted.

• Solbakken's only experience of Romanian opposition came in a 1998 friendly game, which Norway drew 0-0 at home against Romania.

• København were founded in 1992 following a merger between Kjøbenhavns BK and B1903 København. KB met Romanian opposition in the second round of the 1981/82 European Champion Clubs' Cup, winning 1-0 at home against FC Universitatea Craiova but losing 4-1 away.

• AC Sparta Praha visit København on Matchday 2, while PSV Eindhoven are at home against CFR on the same night, 1 October.