St-Étienne v Rosenborg background
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Article summary
AS Saint-Étienne made light work of Rosenborg BK in their only previous European meeting but would do well to take note of their Group G visitors' away form.
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AS Saint-Étienne will look to make a positive start in UEFA Europa League Group G as they are reunited with a Rosenborg BK side on a remarkable run of form away from home in Europe.
Previous meetings
• Laurent Roussey's St-Étienne beat Erik Hamrén's Rosenborg 3-0 in the sides' only previous meeting – a UEFA Cup group stage match. It was St-Étienne's only game against Norwegian opponents to date.
• The lineups for that game on 6 November 2008 were:
St-Étienne: Viviani, Varrault, Benalouane, Tavlaridis, Sauget, Machado, Dernis, Matuidi, Payet (Linganzi 82), Ilan (Hautcoeur 66), Gomis (Mirallas 74).
Rosenborg: Jarstein, Lustig (Nordvik 89), Lago, Demidov, Dorsin, Skjelbred, Tettey, Sapara (Aas 80), Strand, Ya Konan, Iversen (Traoré 65).
• Rosenborg's seven games against French opponents have ended W1 D1 L5 (W1 D1 L1 at home – W0 D0 L4 away). They have not won in their last six meetings with Ligue 1 sides, and have conceded an average of 4.25 goals per game in their previous four matches in France.
Form guide
• St-Étienne kicked off last season's group stage with five straight draws: three 0-0s and then two 1-1s.
• St-Étienne have scored just nine goals in their last 13 European games – scoring more than once in only one of those matches.
• Rosenborg are unbeaten in their last nine European away games (W7 D2).
• St-Étienne made it through the UEFA Cup group stage at the first attempt in 2008/09 but missed the cut last season in their first UEFA Europa League group stage tilt.
• Rosenborg's three previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns have all ended in elimination.
Trivia and links
• The journey from Trondheim to St-Etienne is just over 2,000km.
• Qäbälä FK and Rosenborg are the only sides who have made it all the way from the first qualifying round to the group stage in this season's competition.
• This is St-Étienne's 100th UEFA club competition game, the previous 99 having ended W41 D27 L31.
• Rosenborg's Danish forward Tobias Mikkelsen turns 29 the day after the St-Étienne game.
• Rosenborg's Mikael Dorsin (RC Strasbourg 2003-04) and Anders Konradsen (Stade Rennais FC 2013-15) both have Ligue 1 experience. Konradsen's Rennes team-mates included St-Étienne's Kévin Théophile-Catherine and Vincent Pajot.
The coaches
• St-Étienne coach since 2009, Christophe Galtier led Les Verts to French League Cup success in 2012/13. A defender, he started his playing career at hometown club Olympique de Marseille. He returned to Marseille as a coach, and worked as assistant to Alain Perrin at St-Étienne before getting the senior job.
• Kåre Ingebrigtsen was born in Trondheim and has been with Rosenborg as a player or a coach for long periods of his professional career. As a midfielder, he spent two years abroad with Manchester City FC, and was assistant coach at Viking FK when he was offered the senior job at Rosenborg.
