Dinamo needing a win and a prayer

FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti's slender hopes of continuing their UEFA Europa League adventure hinge on a win against eliminated SK Sturm Graz and a big favour from Galatasaray AŞ in the other Group F game.

• Dinamo will take on Panathinaikos FC for a last-32 place on Matchday 6 if they beat Sturm and Galatasaray – already sure of their place in the last 32 – prevail against the Greek side.

Previous meetings
• Dinamo won 1-0 in Graz on 17 September in the sides' first competitive meeting, and the Romanian team's first game against Austrian opposition. Sturm's only previous trip to Bucharest ended in a 2-1 success at FC Sportul Studentest Bucureşti.

Match background
• Dinamo are without a win in their last seven European home fixtures since a 2-1 UEFA Cup group-stage victory against Bayer 04 Leverkusen on 29 November 2006. That three-year barren spell comprises a draw and six defeats, and they have failed to score in their last four home encounters in UEFA club competition.

• Sturm were unbeaten in ten European away games until their 1-0 Matchday 3 reverse at Panathinaikos.

Team facts
• Austria and Romania have four representatives each in the UEFA Europa League.

• Dinamo caretaker coach Ion Marin – who stepped up to replace Dario Bonetti when the Italian was dismissed before Matchday 3 after just three months at the helm – left to take a job in Saudi Arabia the day after the 4-1 defeat by Galatasaray on 22 October.

• Cornel Ţălnar, a 52-year-old who spent eight successful years at the club (1977-1985) as a player, has been appointed for a third spell as interim coach after previous short stints in 1996-97 and 2007-08.

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

• Sturm were founded in 1902 by local students and academics to serve as a more working-class counterpart to Grazer AK. They reputedly took the name Sturm after a thunderstorm which struck Graz in May 1909.

• Daniel Beichler and Andreas Hölzl played in Austria's 2-1 FIFA World Cup qualifying win against Romania in Klagenfurt on 1 April. Dinamo's Marius Niculae and Gabriel Tamaş featured on the losing side.

• Beichler, Hölzl and team-mate Jakob Jantscher played in the return fixture in Romania on 9 September, a 1-1 draw in which Dinamo's Adrian Cristea featured for the home side.

• No longer associated with the Romanian Internal Affairs Ministry, under whose aegis they were founded, Dinamo are the second most popular team in Romania after FC Steaua Bucureşti, their rivals in the capital's 'Eternul Derby'.

• Dinamo's Cosmin Moţi celebrates his 25th birthday on the day of the match.

• Dinamo visit Panathinaikos on Matchday 6, with Sturm hosting Galatasaray on the same night, 16 December, for what will be the Austrian side's 100th UEFA club competition game.