Marseille v Liberec background

Olympique de Marseille can end a five-game wait for a European home victory when they host FC Slovan Liberec in UEFA Europa League Group F.

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

• Marseille's eight games against Czech sides have ended W4 D1 L3 (W4 D0 L0 at home – W0 D1 L3 away). They did not concede in three of those four home wins.

• Liberec's four fixtures against French clubs have ended W2 D1 L1 (W2 D0 L0 at home – W0 D1 L1 in France).

Form guide
• Marseille are without a victory in five European home games (D1 L4) and are on a run of four straight defeats at Stade Vélodrome. They ended a ten-match winless run in Europe (D1 L9) with a 3-0 success at FC Groningen on matchday one.

• Liberec won both of their away games in qualifying this season without conceding.

• Marseille have featured in this group stage in two previous campaigns; they made it through to the 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 32, but missed the cut in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League.

• This is Liberec's third appearance in this group stage; they fell short in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup, but advanced to the round of 32 in 2013/14.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Liberec to Marseille is around 1,100km.

• Marseille's Belgian forward Michy Batshuayi turns 22 the day after the Liberec game.

The coaches
• Míchel replaced Marcelo Bielsa as Marseille coach in August 2015. A two-time UEFA Cup winner with Real Madrid CF in the 1980s, he has coached Getafe CF and Sevilla FC in his native Spain and came to France after leading Olympiacos FC to three successive domestic titles in Greece.

• Jindřich Trpišovský took charge at Slovan in June. It was a first major top-flight appointment for the coach, who models himself on former Borussia Dortmund boss Jürgen Klopp. Once a youth coach at AC Sparta Praha, he previously led second-division FK Viktoria Žižkov, impressing despite the club's financial problems.