Rosenborg's long road leads to Vienna

SK Rapid Wien and Rosenborg BK meet again in UEFA Europa League Group K, with the Norwegian side having come the long way to reach this season's group stage.

Previous meetings
• The teams first met 44 years ago, when Rudolf Vytlačil's Rapid eliminated Knut Næss's Rosenborg in the first round of the 1968/69 European Champion Clubs' Cup.

• The teams for their first meeting in Norway, a 3-1 win for Rapid on 18 September 1968, were:
Rosenborg: Fossen, Eggen, Hvidsand, Loraas, Rønnes, Christiansen, Næss, Pedersen, Iversen, Sunde, Tingstad.
Rapid: Fuchsbichler, Gebhardt, Glechner, Fak, Skocik, Flögel (Lindman 64), Fritsch, Bjerregaard, Grausam, Kaltenbrunner, Søndergaard.

• The teams were the same for the return fixture in Vienna, a 3-3 draw on 2 October 1968, save for Sven Lindman replacing Rudolf Flögel in the Rapid starting lineup. Odd Iversen scored a hat-trick for Rosenborg.

• Nils Arne Eggen appeared in Rosenborg's defence in both legs; he went on to become the club's coach as they dominated Norwegian football in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Match background
• Rapid's only previous games against Norwegian opponents were those meetings with Rosenborg.

• Rosenborg have also played Rapid's neighbours FK Austria Wien, with Eggen's side beating them 3-1 at home in the first round of the 1993/94 UEFA Champions League before losing 4-1 in the return fixture in Vienna. Thus Rosenborg's record against Austrian sides reads W1 D1 L2 (W1 D0 L1 at home – W0 D1 L1 in Austria).

• Rapid have won both of their European home fixtures this season without conceding.

• This is Rapid's fourth campaign in the group stage of this competition, and they have yet to make it through to the knockout phase.

• Rosenborg and FC Twente are the only sides who have battled their way to the group stage from the first qualifying round. They are unbeaten in eight European matches in 2012/13 – four wins and four draws.

• Rosenborg have been in this group stage on two previous occasions, but failed to reach the round of 32 in both 2008/09 and 2010/11.

Team facts
• Rosenborg's Jon Inge Høiland celebrates his 35th birthday on the day of the game.

• The next goal Rosenborg let in will be the 300th they have conceded in UEFA club competiton; this will be their 195th European game.

• Twente's Leroy Fer and Rosenborg's Czech forward Bořek Dočkal were the highest scorers in qualifying with six goals each.

• Rapid coach Peter Schöttel served the club as a defender from 1986-2002, winning three titles and two Austrian Cups as well as earning a place in the club's Team of the Century in 1999. After retiring, the one-time team captain coached the club's amateur team and then managed SC Wiener Neustadt before returning to take charge of Rapid in 2011.

• Rosenborg coach Jan Jönsson was a midfielder at Halmstads BK in his native Sweden from 1978-92, before moving to Japan, where he served as a player and assistant coach under Stuart Baxter at Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Vissel Kobe. He took command at Rosenborg in 2011 following fruitful spells with Landskrona BoIS (2001-04) and Stabæk Fotball (2005-10).