Bordeaux seek lift against Maccabi Tel-Aviv

Beaten 3-0 at Eintract Frankfurt on matchday one, FC Girondins de Bordeaux will look to make up some lost ground when they host Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC in UEFA Europa League Group F.

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

• Bordeaux's only previous meetings with Israeli opponents were 1-0 wins home and away against Maccabi Haifa FC in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Maccabi Tel-Aviv's four games against Ligue 1 sides stand at W1 D1 L2 (W1 D1 L0 at home – W0 D0 L2 in France). They have conceded twice in both of their previous trips to France.

Match background
• After getting through the group stage, Bordeaux reached last season's UEFA Europa League round of 16. They also made it through this group stage at the first attempt in 2007/08.

• A 3-2 home defeat by SL Benfica in last season's round of 16 ended Bordeaux's 13-game unbeaten home run (W10 D3) in European competition. They have, however, won all five of their group stage home fixtures in this competition.

• Maccabi Tel-Aviv are appearing in the group stage for the second time having missed the cut without winning a game in the 2011/12 competition, collecting only two points from their six matches.

• Maccabi Tel-Aviv were handed a bye in the UEFA Europa League play-offs after their opponents, PAOK FC, took the place of excluded FC Metalist Kharkiv in the UEFA Champions League play-offs.

• Maccabi Tel-Aviv have yet to win a group stage away game in this competition (D1 L2).

Team facts
• Maccabi Tel-Aviv are the most southerly side in this season's competition, with Tromsø IL pushing the competition's northern frontier inside the Arctic Circle – 4,299km separate the two clubs.

• Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Group F rivals APOEL are among nine domestic champions in this season's group stage along with NK Maribor (Slovenia), FC Sheriff (Moldova), PFC Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria), Legia Warszawa (Poland), FC Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan), GNK Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) and IF Elfsborg (Sweden).

Coach information
• Francis Gillot led Bordeaux to the UEFA Europa League round of 16 and their fourth French Cup in 2012/13, his second season in charge since joining from FC Sochaux-Montbéliard. A solid defender for RC Lens and RC Strasbourg, he started his coaching career with Lens where his frankness, faith in young players and attacking style proved popular, and he was then in charge of Sochaux from 2008 to 2011.

• Maccabi Tel-Aviv's Portuguese coach Paulo Sousa famously won back-to-back UEFA Champions League titles with different clubs – Juventus (1995/96) and Borussia Dortmund (1996/97). The defensive midfielder also reached the semi-finals of UEFA EURO 2000 with Portugal. He coached a series of English league clubs before leading Videoton FC in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League, and was hired as Maccabi coach in June 2013.