Stuttgart bid to stay on top as Getafe visit

With a new coach in charge since Matchday 2, VfB Stuttgart will look to end a 12-game barren spell against Spanish opposition in UEFA Europa League Group H as Getafe CF visit southern Germany.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition.

• Stuttgart's 13 games against Spanish sides have ended W1 D4 L8 (W1 D2 L3 at home).

• That lone victory came in their first game against a Spanish side, as they beat Real Sociedad de Fútbol 1-0 in a UEFA Cup quarter-final opener on 28 February 1989. They have thus gone 12 games – and over 21 years – without a win against Liga opponents.

• Getafe's only experience of German opposition comes from the 2007/08 UEFA Cup quarter-finals, where they lost out on away goals to FC Bayern München. Both legs finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, but it was 3-3 after extra time in Getafe, with Luca Toni scoring twice late on to push the Bavarian side through.

Match background
• Stuttgart are unbeaten in six European fixtures this season – four wins and two draws, but while they have not lost in five home games, they have only won two of them.

• Getafe's 2-0 defeat at BSC Young Boys on Matchday 2 ended a six-game unbeaten run on their European travels.

Team fact
• Stuttgart are three goals shy of 200 conceded in UEFA club competition. This will be their 175th UEFA game.

• Stuttgart parted company with Swiss coach Christian Gross on 13 October with his side bottom of the Bundesliga. He had joined VfB in December last year. Gross has been replaced by his assistant Jens Keller, a former Stuttgart player who also represented TSV 1860 München, VfL Wolfsburg, 1. FC Köln and Eintracht Frankfurt.

• One of the five locally born players at the heart of Madrid's successful 1980s and 1990s sides – dubbed the Quinta del Buitre (the Vulture's Cohort, in honour of their leader Emilio Butragueño) – Míchel won six Spanish titles and two UEFA Cups as a Madrid player. Initially a TV pundit after retirement, Míchel went into coaching with Rayo Vallecano, joining Getafe in April 2009 after a spell with Real Madrid's academy.