Videoton and Sporting coaches reunited

A Videoton FC side with a pronounced Portuguese accent take on Sporting Clube de Portugal in UEFA Europa League Group G, with the sides' coaches already well acquainted.

Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition, and this is Videoton's first encounter with Portuguese opponents.

• Sporting's record in eight games against Hungrarian sides is W2 D1 L5. Those games also include the final of the 1963/64 European Cup Winners' Cup, where Sporting beat MTK Budapest 1-0 in a replay in Belgium two days after their first encounter ended 3-3.

• Other than those two games, Sporting's record against Hungarian sides reads W1 D0 L5 (W1 D0 L2 in Portugal – W0 D0 L3 in Hungary).

• This is Sporting's first game against a Hungarian side in just over 32 years.

Match background
• Videoton have not scored in their last three European games, and three of their seven continental fixtures this season have ended in 0-0 draws.

• Videoton are unbeaten in eight European home games (three wins and five draws) since a 3-0 loss to Hibernian FC on 26 September 1989, over 23 years ago.

• Sporting are unbeaten in three European games this season, but have not won in seven continental away games (three draws and four defeats) since a 2-0 win at FC Zürich in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Beaten 1985 UEFA Cup finalists, Videoton are competing in the group stage of a UEFA competition for the first time.

• Sporting are competing in this group stage for the fifth time (and the fourth time in as many seasons). They have never failed to progress to the knockout stage.

Team facts
• Videoton defender Marco Caneira has played for Sporting in three separate spells. He started his career in the club's youth department, and made his debut for them at 17, representing Sporting (1996-2000), and returning in 2006/07 (when he won the Portuguese Cup while on loan from Valencia CF) and again (2008-11), when he joined Videoton.

• Vidi midfielder Renato Neto is on loan from Sporting: the Brazilian also came through the club's youth system.

• Paulo Sousa, the Hungarian club's Portuguese coach, has brought in several players with experience of playing in Portugal: forward Filipe Oliveira (CS Marítimo, SC Leixões, SC Braga), defender Stopira (CD Santa Clara, CD Feirense) and Kaká (SC Braga).

• Former Portugal midfielder Paulo Sousa won back-to-back UEFA Champions League titles as a player with Juventus (1995/96) and Borussia Dortmund (1996/97), as well as domestic titles in Portugal, Italy and Germany. He coached in England with Queens Park Rangers FC, Swansea City AFC and Leicester City FC before joining Videoton in May 2011.

• Sporting's coach is Ricardo Sá Pinto, who won 45 caps for Portugal and represented Sporting twice as a player – winning a title and two Portuguese Cups – as well as playing up front for Real Sociedad de Fútbol in Spain and R. Standard de Liège in Belgium. Sporting hired him as coach in February 2012 – it is his first major appointment as a first-team boss.

• The two coaches did not play together at Sporting (Sá Pinto arrived at the end of Sousa's only full season at the club, 1993/94), but know each other well from the national team, having been in the squads for EURO '96 and UEFA EURO 2000.