Basel v Lech background

FC Basel 1893 have already knocked KKS Lech Poznań out of one competition this season and will look to deal them another blow in UEFA Europa League Group I.

Previous meetings
• Basel and Lech met in this season's UEFA Champions League third qualifying round – Basel won 3-1 in Poznan and 1-0 at home.

• The teams for that latter meeting on 5 August were:
Basel: Vaclík, Lang, Bjarnason, Delgado (Zuffi 77), Suchý, Safari (Traoré 89), Janko (Embolo 70), Kuzmanović, Høegh, Elneny, Callà.
Lech: Burić, Douglas, Trałka, Linetti, Pawłowski, Jevtic (Thomalla 73), Dudka, Hämäläinen (Robak 84), Ceesay, Formella (Lovrencsics 69), Kamiński.

• That was Basel's first home game against Polish opponents – their three fixtures in Poland ended W2 L1.

• Lech's only previous tie against a Swiss side was a 6-0 aggregate defeat of Grasshopper Club Zürich in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup second qualifying round, with all the goals scored in the home leg – including two for a young Robert Lewandowski. Basel midfielder Davide Callà was on the losing team in that game.

Form guide
• Basel are unbeaten in Europe this season (W3 D2), but bowed out of the UEFA Champions League play-offs on away goals following 2-2 and 1-1 draws against Maccabi Tel Aviv FC.

• Lech have not conceded in three European contests (W2 D1) since their last encounter with Basel.

• Basel have featured in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage six times; they have made it to the knockout stage on four occasions and been eliminated twice.

• Lech progressed to the round of 32 in their only two previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Poznan to Basel is around 850km.

• The 2016 UEFA Europa League final will be played at Basel's St. Jakob-Park on 18 May.

• Lech's Swiss midfielder Darko Jevtic was signed from Basel after a successful loan spell. The 22-year-old was born in Basel and came through the youth ranks at the Swiss club.

• Basel and Lech are two of the ten domestic champions in this season's group stage, along with KF Skenderbëu (Albania), Qarabağ FK (Albania), APOEL FC (Cyprus), FC Viktoria Plzeň (Czech Republic), FC Midtjylland (Denmark), FK Partizan (Serbia), Molde FK (Norway) and Celtic FC (Scotland).

The coaches
• Urs Fischer took charge of Basel this summer following Paulo Sousa's move to ACF Fiorentina. The one-time FC Zürich defender has already led Zürich (2011/12) and FC Thun (2013/14) into the UEFA Europa League group stage, though neither side made it to the knockout phase.

• Maciej Skorża guided Lech to the Polish title in his first season in charge, 2014/15, having previously won the crown twice as coach of Wisła Kraków. He was just 32 when he became the first coach to steer a Polish side into the UEFA Cup group stage, his KS Amica Wronki squad qualifying for the first edition in 2004/05.