Trabzonspor rematch for Lazio

Trabzonspor AŞ take on SS Lazio again in UEFA Europa League Group J, with the Italian club having come out on top when the teams last met nearly 19 years ago.

Previous meetings
• The sides faced each other in the third round of the 1994/95 UEFA Cup, where Zdeněk Zeman's Lazio beat Şenol Günes's Trabzonspor 2-1 home and away.

• The teams for their previous meeting in Trabzon on 22 November 1994 were:
Trabzonspor: Grischko, Lemi Çelik, Aslan Hamdi, Serdar Kemal, Tolunay Kafkas, Abdullah Ercan, Osman Özköylü, Ünal Karaman, Soner Boz, Hami Mandıralı, Orhan Kaynak (Ender Traş 82).
Lazio: Marchegiani, Negro, Chamot, Di Matteo (Venturin 83), Bergodi, Cravero, Rambaudi, Fuser (Bacci 89), Casiraghi, Winter, Signori.

Match background
• Trabzonspor's ten games against Italian clubs stand at W3 D3 L4 (W1 D2 L2 at home – W2 D1 L2 in Italy).

• Lazio's ten fixtures against Turkish selections stand at W6 D2 L2 (W3 D2 L0 in Rome – W3 D0 L2 in Turkey).

• Trabzonspor are making their debut in the UEFA Europa League group stage, though they played in the 2011/12 round of 32 after finishing third in their section in their maiden UEFA Champions League campaign.

• Following a 2-1 win at Apollon Limassol FC on matchday one, Trabzonspor are unbeaten in regular and extra time in nine European games (W6 D3), including victories in five of their six games in qualifying this season.

• This is Lazio's fifth group stage campaign; they missed the cut in their first two, in 2004/05 and 2009/10, but reached the 2011/12 round of 32 and last season's quarter-finals.

• Lazio beat Legia Warszawa 1-0 on matchday one. Their 2-0 loss at Fenerbahçe SK in last season's UEFA Europa League quarter-finals – their most recent continental away fixture – ended Lazio's six-game unbeaten run on the road (W3 D3).

Team facts
• Trabzonspor midfielder Didier Zokora and Lazio counterpart Abdoulay Konko were team-mates at Sevilla FC in 2009/10.

• Trabzonspor's Paulo Henrique was the most prolific scorer in UEFA Europa League qualifying this season with seven goals in six games.

• Lazio's Albania midfielder Lorik Cana spent the 2010/11 season in Turkey at Galatasaray AŞ.

• Lazio coach Vladimir Petković also knows Turkish football, having managed Samsunspor from 2011–12.

Coach information
• Trabzonspor's Mustafa Akçay spent several spells observing AFC Ajax at close hand during his coach education. He made his name by winning promotion to the second tier with TKİ Tavşanlı Linyitspor in 2009/10; their survival at that level the following season prompted Trabzonspor's feeder club 1461 Trabzon to take him on. Their third-place finish in the same division last term earned the trainer a move to Trabzonspor in summer 2013.

• Hired in summer 2012, Petković led Lazio to the Coppa Italia in his first season in charge. Nicknamed Il Dottore (The Doctor), the Sarajevo-born coach reportedly speaks eight languages and has spent most of his career in Switzerland as a midfielder and then a coach. Prior to joining Lazio, he took BSC Young Boys to the UEFA Europa League group stage and reached the last eight with the Biancocelesti last season.