Sporting take on Zürich to secure summit

Having secured their place in the round of 32, Sporting Clube de Portugal will look to clinch top spot in UEFA Europa League Group D when the section's bottom side, FC Zürich, visit Lisbon.

Previous meetings
• Sporting won 2-0 when the teams met for the third time in UEFA competition on matchday one. Emiliano Insúa headed the visitors into a fourth-minute lead before setting up Ricky van Wolfswinkel for a second (21). Zürich can take some consolation from having hit the woodwork three times.

• Mário Lino's Sporting beat Friedhelm Konietzka's Zürich 4-1 on aggregate in the 1973/74 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals in the sides' only previous UEFA club competition meeting.

• Their teams for the first leg of that tie - a 3-0 home win for Sporting at the old Estádio José Alvalade on 6 March 1974 - were:
Sporting: Damas, Manaca, Carlos Pereira, Vagner, Bastos, Alhinho, Marinho, Nélson, Yazalde, Baltasar, Chico Faria.
Zürich: Grob, Heer, Rutschmann (Marti 74), Zigerlig, Bionda, Kuhn, Martinelli, Katić, Jeandupeux, Stierli, Botteron.

• The sides previously met in the third round of the 1968 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the non-UEFA affiliated predecessor of the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League. Zürich prevailed, winning 3-0 at home and losing 1-0 in Lisbon.

Match background
• Sporting's 11 matches against Swiss clubs ended W7 D2 L2 (W2 D1 L1 in Lisbon). They have won their last five games against Swiss opposition without conceding a goal.

• Zürich's record in five UEFA games against Portuguese teams reads W0 D2 L3. They have lost both of their previous games in Lisbon without scoring, conceding seven goals in the process (a 3-0 defeat against Sporting and a 4-0 loss to SL Benfica on 6 March 1974).

• A 1-0 defeat at FC Vaslui on matchday four ended Sporting's seven-game unbeaten run in Europe. However, they remain unbeaten in seven games at home (six wins and a draw) since a 2-0 loss to Brøndby IF in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League play-offs.

• Zürich are without a win in their last six European fixtures (two draws and four defeats) since beating R. Standard de Liège 1-0 in this season's UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. They have also recorded two draws and four defeats on the road since their last away win, 1-0 at AC Milan in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League group stage.

Team facts
• Sporting coach Domingos Paciência made his name in Europe last season by leading SC Braga to the UEFA Europa League final, where they lost 1-0 to FC Porto in Dublin.

• Zürich boss Urs Fischer joined the club as a youth player in the early 1970s, played for them as a defender in two spells (1984-87 and 1996-2003) and took charge of the club as coach in 2010, after serving as assistant to Bernard Challandes in 2007/08.

• Zürich defender Jorge Teixeira started his career as a trainee with Sporting (2004-05), winning the 2005 Portuguese youth title in a team which featured Sporting winger Yannick Djaló, and was coached by national-team boss Paulo Bento.

• Teixeira recently spoke of his excitement to be playing his old club in Europe, saying: "Sporting were crucial in my career. It will be also a good opportunity to show what I can do and make my name in Portugal."

• Zürich's Serbian midfielder Milan Gajić played in Portugal with Boavista FC, making three league appearances in 2007/08 while on loan from FK Napredak Kruševac.

• Zürich defender Philippe Koch and forward Admir Mehmedi were on the losing side against Sporting winger Diego Capel (a late substitute) as Switzerland succumbed 2-0 to Spain in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final this summer.

• Sporting summer signing Oguchi Onyewu was a second-half substitute in AC Milan's 1-0 loss at home against Zürich in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League group stage; Johnny Leoni, Heinz Barmettler, Philippe Koch, Silvan Aegerter, Dusan Djurić, Milan Gajić and Alexandre Alphonse (a late substitute) were on the winning side.

• Sporting's Santiago Árias received an early red card as a Switzerland side featuring Zürich's Ricardo Rodriguez beat Colombia 4-0 to reach the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup final, a tournment they went on to win with a 1-0 victory against hosts Nigeria.