Standard on song as Esbjerg visit

R. Standard de Liège will look to extend their six-game winning streak in this season's UEFA Europa League when group stage debutants Esbjerg fB travel to Belgium.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition, and this is Esbjerg's first game against a Belgian club.

• Standard have won all three of their previous games against Belgian opponents without conceding a goal; most recently, they met FC København in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage, winning 3-0 at home and 1-0 in Copenhagen.

Match background
• Standard are unbeaten in ten European home games (W6 D4) since a 3-1 loss to Hamburger SV in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals. They have won all six of their games since entering this season's competition in the second qualifying round.

• Since missing the cut on their debut in 2004/05, Standard have made it through both of their UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns. They also notably reached the last eight in 2009/10, having transferred from the UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Esbjerg beat AS Saint-Étienne home and away in the play-offs to make it to their first UEFA club competition group stage.

• The Danish side have won their last three European away fixtures without conceding: 6-0 at FC Flora and 1-0 at Tromsø IL in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup and then 1-0 at St-Étienne in August.

Team facts
• Norwegian striker Mushaga Bakenga played for Club Brugge KV and on loan at Cercle Brugge KSV before being loaned to Esbjerg this summer. His three games against Standard brought a win (1-0 with Club Brugge in 2011/12) and two defeats (2-1, 1-0 with Cercle Brugge in 2012/13).

• Esbjerg winger Emil Lyng also has some experience of Belgian football, having spent part of 2009/10 on loan from LOSC Lille at SV Zulte Waregem. His side drew 1-1 at home against Standard during that spell.

Coach information
• Guy Luzon left his native Israel to take over as Standard coach in summer 2013, having led his national team on home soil at the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Injury forced the nephew of Israel Football Association president Avi Luzon to hang up his boots at 21, but he found his calling as a coach, famously leading Maccabi Petach-Tikva FC into the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage.

• Hired as Esbjerg coach in the summer of 2013 after Jess Thorup moved on to coach Denmark's Under-21 side, Niels Frederiksen took an unusual path into top-flight football. An economics graduate, he worked at a bank while coaching youth teams at B 1903 København and Lyngby BK, eventually being hired as the club's senior coach in 2009. He led them to promotion in the first of his four seasons in charge.