Partizan v Athletic background

FK Partizan will look to maintain their unbeaten record at home against Spanish opponents as Athletic Club make a long journey east from Bilbao in Group L.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition and this is also Athletic's first encounter with Serbian opponents.

• Partizan's 11 games against Spanish teams – including their 2-1 loss to Real Madrid CF in the 1966 European Champion Clubs' Cup final in Brussels – have ended W3 D2 L6 (W3 D2 L0 at home, including a win played in Istanbul – W0 D0 L5 in Spain, where they have yet to score).

Form guide
• Partizan have won all four of their European home games this season and have maximum points in Group L.

• Athletic have yet to win away in UEFA competition this term (D1 L2).

• Partizan have featured in this group stage six times previously yet have not advanced to the round of 32 since their first appearance in 2004/05.

• Losing finalists in 2012, Athletic made it through to the round of 32 in their first two UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns but fell short in their most recent one, 2012/13.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Bilbao to Belgrade is around 1,850km.

• Partizan's Saša Ilić, 119, has made the most UEFA club competition appearances of the players in this season's group stage.

• Partizan's Gregor Balažic (RCD Espanyol), Stefan Babović (Real Zaragoza) and Saša Ilić (RC Celta de Vigo) have all spent time with Spanish clubs.

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

The coaches
• Zoran Milinković stepped down as Partizan coach in the wake of a 2-2 league draw against promoted FK Radnik Surdulica, with the Serbian champions well off the pace in the title race.

• His replacement is Ljubinko Drulović, most recently coach of FYR Macedonia, who was a winger at Partizan towards the end of a playing career in which he won five Portuguese titles with FC Porto. Now 47, the former Yugoslavia international was briefly stand-in coach of Serbia in 2014.

• Ernesto Valverde took charge of Athletic for a second time in 2013. As a player, he had enjoyed the most stable period of his career in Bilbao, and he promptly returned to the club after retiring, including as head coach from 2003–05. Subsequently, he landed three Greek titles with Olympiacos FC and coached Villarreal CF and Valencia FC.