Greens preparing a storm for Sturm

Panathinaikos FC may feel they have an old score to settle as they welcome SK Sturm Graz in UEFA Europa League Group F, with the Austrian outfit having triumphed when the sides last met in Athens.

Previous meetings
• The two teams met in the second group stage of the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League, with Ivica Osim's Sturm winning 2-0 in Austria and 2-1 against Angelos Anastasiadis' charges in Athens.

• The teams for that latter match on 20 February 2001 were:-
Panathinaikos: Nikopolidis, Henriksen, Olivares, Goumas, Warzycha (Vlaović, 70), Vokolos (Boateng, 54), Nasiopoulos, Basinas, Liberopoulos, Karagounis*, Fyssas (Šarić, 46).
Sturm: Sidorczuk, Neukirchner, Schupp, Vastić, Korsós, Prilasnig, Schopp, Minavandchal (Ibertsberger, 84), Kocijan (Hlinka*, 90), Fleurquin, Haas* (Szabics, 70).

*eligible to play in this game.

Match background
• Sturm are the only Austrian team to have beaten Panathinaikos at home – both Grazer AK and FK Austria Wien lost games in Athens.

• Sturm went down 2-0 to AEK Athens FC in their only other match in the Greek capital, on 23 October 1997.

• Panathinaikos have been in shaky form at home recently, recording one victory and three defeats in their last four European fixtures in Athens.

• Sturm have not lost in ten European away games – four wins and six draws – since a 1-0 loss at PFC Levski Sofia in a 2002/03 UEFA Cup second round contest.

Team facts
• Panathinaikos trainer Henk ten Cate spent most of his playing career as a winger with Go Ahead Eagles, one of a number of Dutch clubs whom he then coached. He went on to assist Frank Rijkaard as FC Barcelona coach followed by Avram Grant as Chelsea FC manager either side of a spell at the AFC Ajax helm (2006/07).

• Ten Cate faced Austrian opposition in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup group stage, with his Ajax side beating Austria Wien 3-0 at home.

• German coach Franco Foda has been with Sturm for over a decade, having joined the club as a defender in 1997. The former 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart defender counts his son Sandro Foda – a midfielder – among his players at Sturm.

• Foda took on Panathinaikos as a Leverkusen player in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, with he and his colleagues winning 4-1 in Athens but losing the home leg 2-1.

• Panathinaikos's Cédric Kanté and Sturm's Mario Haas were team-mates at RC Strasbourg from 1999 to 2001.

• The two sides meet again in Austria on 5 November for Matchday 4.