Rapid and Legia reunited 40 years on

Exactly 40 years and a day since their last meeting in Romania, FC Rapid Bucureşti will look to earn another rousing home victory against Legia Warszawa in UEFA Europa League Group C.

Previous meetings
• Bazil Marian's Rapid beat Tadeusz Chruściński's Legia 4-2 on aggregate in the second round of the 1971/72 UEFA Cup in the sides' only previous UEFA meeting.

• The teams for their encounter in Bucharest on 19 October 1971 – a day shy of 40 years before this contest – were:

Rapid: Rică Raducănu, Pop, Boc, Codrea, Dinu, Lupescu, Năsturescu, Ene, Neagu, Dumitru, Anghelescu (Codreanu 46).
Legia: Tomaszewski (Mowlik 32), Stachurski, W Blaut, Trzaskowski, Zygmunt, Z Blaut, Cypka, Korzeniowski, Brychczy, Deyna, Gadocha.

• Legia goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski was replaced after 32 minutes with Legia 3-0 down. Wiesław Korzeniowski was sent off on 46 minutes.

• Lucjan Brychczy, now 77, played in that game and is still on the coaching staff at Legia. He is the club's second highest scorer of all time with 182 top-flight goals.

Match background
• Rapid's five games against Polish sides – including their previous meetings with Legia – ended W3 D1 L1 (W1 D1 L0 as the home side). They eliminated WKS Śląsk Wroclaw in the play-offs to reach this season's group stage, winning the tie 4-2 on aggregate.

• Legia's record in four games against Romanian clubs reads W3 D0 L1 (W1 D0 L1 away). They beat FCM UTA Arad 8-0 at home in the 1969/70 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round to record their second biggest continental victory.

• Rapid's 3-1 loss to PSV Eindhoven on matchday two ended a 17-game unbeaten home run in UEFA games (ten wins and seven draws). It was a record dating back to a 1-0 defeat by Vitesse in the UEFA Cup first round on 3 October 2002.

• Legia's 1-0 loss at PSV ended a four-game unbeaten run on the road in Europe, comprising three wins and a draw.

Team facts
• Legia goalkeeper Dušan Kuciak spent the past three seasons in Romania with FC Vaslui; his five games against Rapid ended W2 D2 L1 with Kuciak keeping two clean sheets.

• Rapid boss Razvăn Lucescu played in goal for a number of Romanian clubs, including Rapid, and briefly played in Italy for Crema Calcio in 1992/93, while his father Mircea was coaching Serie A side Brescia Calcio. In a previous spell as Rapid coach, he won two Romanian Cups and led them to the quarter-finals of the 2005/06 UEFA Cup and into the group stage once more the following season. He then coached Romania from 2009 to 2011.

• Legia midfielder Maciej Rybus made his first appearance for Poland in a 1-0 defeat by a Romania side coached by Lucescu in November 2009. Team-mate Michał Żewłakow also featured.

• Legia coach Maciej Skorża had abandoned his playing career as a defender by his early 20s, but became a successful coach with KS Amica Wronki, Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski and Wisła Kraków, where he won two Polish league titles.