Sporting CP v Skënderbeu background

The bottom two in UEFA Europa League Group H go head-to-head on matchday three as Sporting Clube de Portugal host KS Skënderbeu seeking to mark Jorge Jesus's 100th UEFA club competition game with a win.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition and it is Skënderbeu's maiden encounter with Portuguese opponents.

• Sporting's only games against Albanian teams were in a 1985/86 UEFA Cup second round tie versus FK Dinamo Tirana that they won 1-0 on aggregate. 

• This is only the fifth fixture between clubs from these nations in UEFA competition. To date, no Albanian side has won (D1 L3) or scored against Portuguese opponents.

Form guide
• Sporting are without a victory in three European fixtures (D1 L2). Prior to their 3-1 loss to FC Lokomotiv Moskva on matchday one, they had been unbeaten in 20 UEFA Europa League home games (group stage to final).

• Skënderbeu are on a four-game losing streak in Europe and failed to score in their first two Group H assignments against Lokomotiv (0-2) and Beşiktaş JK (0-1).

• In five previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, Sporting have only once failed to make it to the round of 32 – in their most recent campaign, in 2012/13.

• Skenderbëu are the first Albanian outfit to feature in the group stage of a major UEFA competition.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Korce to Lisbon is around 2,550km.

• Skënderbeu striker Hamdi Salihi has scored 14 UEFA club competition goals – two more than all of his team-mates combined.

• Skënderbeu are one of ten domestic champions in this season's group stage, along with Qarabağ FK (Azerbaijan), APOEL FC (Cyprus), FC Viktoria Plzeň (Czech Republic), FC Midtjylland (Denmark), KKS Lech Poznań (Poland), FK Partizan (Serbia), Celtic FC (Scotland), Molde FK (Norway) and FC Basel 1893 (Switzerland).

The coaches
• A losing UEFA Europa League finalist with SL Benfica in 2013 and 2014, Jesus unexpectedly left the Eagles for fierce local rivals Sporting this summer. The 61-year-old had started his playing career at Sporting – who his father Virgolino also represented – and had coached Benfica since 2009.

• This is Jesus's 100th game as a coach in UEFA club competition.

• In charge at Skënderbeu since 2012, Mirel Josa was capped 27 times as a midfielder by Albania and spent the bulk of his career at KF Tirana before finishing up in Greece. He won a title as a coach with Tirana too, and has led his current side to glory in the last three Albanian league campaigns.