Augsburg v Athletic background

Newcomers FC Augsburg, who have turned their campaign around with back-to-back UEFA Europa League Group K wins, welcome section leaders Athletic Club on matchday five.

• Athletic will qualify if they avoid defeat.

Previous meetings
• In what was Augsburg's first game in UEFA competition, the Bundesliga outfit took an early lead but went on to lose 3-1 at Athletic on matchday one.

• Athletic's record in nine games against German sides is W3 D2 L4 (W1 D0 L3 in Germany, with that win coming on their most recent visit).

Form guide
• In four games in European competition so far, Augsburg have recorded home and away wins and home and away defeats. The only thing they have yet to do is draw.

• Athletic's 2-0 success at Partizan on matchday three was their first away success in four continental games this season (W1 D1 L2).

• This is Augsburg's first European campaign; founded in 1907, they secured a fifth-place finish in Germany last season to qualify directly for the UEFA Europa League group stage.

• 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, in 2012/13.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Bilbao to Augsburg is just over 1,200km.

• Augsburg's Raúl Bobadilla and Athletic's Aritz Aduriz are among six players to have scored four goals in the first four matchdays along with Franco Di Santo (FC Schalke 04), José Callejón (SSC Napoli), Manolo Gabbiadini (Napoli) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund).

• Bobadilla also claimed a unique distinction by becoming the first player to score UEFA Europa League hat-tricks for two clubs, his treble in Augsburg's 4-1 win against AZ Alkmaar coming three years after he struck all three goals in Young Boys' victory against Udinese.

• Augsburg goalkeeper Alexander Manninger was briefly on the books of a Spanish club, RCD Espanyol, in 2002.

• Other Augsburg players with Spanish experience are: Daniel Opare (Real Madrid Castilla) and Piotr Trochowski (Sevilla FC).

The coaches
• Ausgburg coach Markus Weinzerl's playing career peaked when he spent a season with the first-team squad at FC Bayern München, though he never played a senior game. Augsburg hired him as coach in 2012 following a spell at SSV Jahn Regensburg, and he thrived, last season's fifth-place finish a club best.

• Ernesto Valverde took charge at Athletic for a second time in 2013. As a player, he spent the most stable period of his career in Bilbao and returned to the club after retiring, later taking charge from 2003 to 2005. Since then he has won three Greek titles with Olympiacos FC and coached Villarreal CF and Valencia FC.