Bottom feeders aiming upwards

Both without a win in two UEFA Europa League group-stage outings, Club Brugge KV and FK Partizan are in danger of being cast adrift at the foot of Group J as they meet for the first time in Belgium.

Previous meetings
• The two teams have never met. In their only previous tie against Serbian opposition, Club Brugge recovered from a 3-1 first-leg defeat by FK Crvena Zvezda in a 1987/88 UEFA Cup second round tie to win 4-0 in Bruges. Partizan's only experience of facing a Belgian outfit is a 1-0 home defeat by R. Standard de Liège in last season's UEFA Cup group stage.

Match background
• Having won both of their previous European home games this season, Club Brugge were beaten 4-1 by FC Shakhtar Donetsk in their opening UEFA Europa League group-stage game at the Jan Breydel Stadium.

• Partizan lost by the same margin to Shakhtar in their most recent fixture on foreign soil on Matchday 2, having won their only other UEFA Europa League away game this season 2-0 at MŠK Žilina in the play-offs.

• Partizan have contested ten away games in UEFA club competition group stages and have lost all but one of them: a 2-2 draw at S.S. Lazio in the UEFA Cup on 25 November 2004.

Team facts
• Former Roda JC and PSV Eindhoven winger Adrie Koster replaced Jacky Mathijssen as Club Brugge coach in April. The former Dutch international (three caps) held the reins at a number of smaller Eredivisie sides before briefly becoming AFC Ajax trainer in October 2007.

• Just before the start of the group stage, Partizan dismissed former Yugoslavia midfielder Slaviša Jokanović as their coach, with the former CD Tenerife, RC Deportivo La Coruña and Chelsea CF player being temporarily replaced by his assistant Goran Stevanović.

• Partizan's Senegalese striker Lamine Diarra and Club Brugge's Paraguayan defender Antolin Alcaraz were briefly team-mates at Portuguese side SC Beira-Mar in the 2006/07 season.

• Partizan's Guinea-Bissau-born midfielder Almani Moreira has plenty of experience of Belgian football from his time at R. Standard de Liège between 2001 and 2006. Club Brugge's Karel Geraerts was a team-mate of his at Standard in 2005/06.

• Club Brugge are looking to record their 100th UEFA club competition victory in their 222nd continental fixture.

• Club Brugge's Stijn Stijnen, Carl Hoefkens and Geraerts faced Partizan's Mladen Krstajić in Belgium's 1-0 UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying defeat by Serbia at the FK Crvena Zvezda Stadium on 7 October 2006. The same players were all involved as Belgium won the return fixture 3-2 in Brussels on 22 August 2007.

• Club Brugge defender Ryan Donk was a member of the Netherlands team that beat Serbia in the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final. Serbia were coached by Miroslav Djukić, who later took charge of Partizan and is now in Belgium, coaching R. Excelsior Mouscron.

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