Dinamo Zagreb hope for PSV tonic

GNK Dinamo Zagreb will look to stop the rot in Group B as PSV Eindhoven head east targeting a second successive UEFA Europa League away win.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• Dinamo's record in ten games against Dutch clubs – eight of them versus AFC Ajax – is W3 D2 L5 (W1 D2 L3 in Zagreb – W2 D0 L2 in the Netherlands). They have lost the most recent four of those fixtures, all against Ajax.

• PSV's only previous Croatian experience came when they met HNK Hajduk Split in the 1975/76 European Champion Clubs' Cup quarter-finals; they lost 2-0 in Split but prevailed 3-0 after extra time in the return fixture in Eindhoven.

Match background
• Dinamo have yet to make it through the group stage of this competition in five attempts. They kicked off Group B with a 2-1 home loss to FC Chornomorets Odesa and were then beaten 3-0 at PFC Ludogorets Razgrad on matchday two.

• Dinamo are looking to avoid a third successive home defeat in Europe this season.

• PSV are the only side to have competed in every edition of the UEFA Europa League group stage since the competition's inception in 2009/10, missing out on the round of 32 for the first time last season when they finished behind FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and SSC Napoli in Group F.

• PSV lost 2-0 at home against Ludogorets on matchday one but made up for that with a 2-0 win at Chornomorets.

Team facts
• PSV's win at Ludogorets was their 38th UEFA Europa League game, matching the record held by two-time winners Club Atlético de Madrid and Sporting Clube de Portugal. They also took their total to 62 UEFA Europa League goals, breaking Atlético's record of 61.

• Dinamo are one of nine domestic champions in the group stage along with Group B rivals Ludogorets (Bulgaria), NK Maribor (Slovenia), FC Sheriff (Moldova), Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC (Israel), Legia Warszawa (Poland), FC Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan), APOEL FC (Cyprus) and IF Elfsborg (Sweden).

• PSV are one of five clubs in this season's group stage to have won this competition before (1978), along with Valencia CF (2004), Eintracht Frankfurt (1980) and two-time winners Sevilla FC (2006, 2007) and Tottenham Hotspur FC (1972, 1984). PSV are the only side involved on matchday three to have also won the European Champion Clubs' Cup, in 1988.

Coach information
• Dinamo brought an end to Branko Ivanković's third spell as the club's coach on Tuesday, with his side having lost four of his eight games since he took charge in September.

• Sporting director Zoran Mamić has been put in charge for the remainder of the year, with Damir Krznar and Igor Cvitanović working as his assistants. Capped six times as a defender and defensive midfielder, he started and ended his playing career at Dinamo either side of a long spell in Germany, where he represented the likes of VfL Bochum 1848 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

• Hired in the summer of 2013 to coach the club he served so successfully as a player, Phillip Cocu had spent several years preparing, working with the senior national team and PSV's youth teams and briefly taking caretaker command of the PSV first XI in 2012. Capped 101 times by the Netherlands, he won four Dutch titles with PSV either side of a lengthy spell at FC Barcelona, peaking with the 1998/99 Liga triumph.