St-Étienne v Lazio background

AS Saint-Étienne cannot catch SS Lazio at the top of UEFA Europa League Group G as the sides, both through, start to think ahead to the draw for the round of 32.

Previous meetings
• Lazio won 3-2 when the teams met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday two.

• St-Étienne's five fixtures against Italian clubs have ended W1 D2 L2 (W1 D1 L0 at home).

• Lazio's 15 games against French opposition have ended W6 D3 L6 (W2 D1 L4 in France).

Form guide
• St-Étienne made it through the UEFA Cup group stage at the first attempt in 2008/09 but missed the cut last season in their first UEFA Europa League group stage tilt.

• Lazio have now successfully navigated their way through their last four UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, having missed out on the round of 32 in their first two attempts: in 2004/05 and 2009/10.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Rome to Saint-Etienne is around 750km.

• St-Étienne's Jérémy Clément and Benoît Assou-Ekotto could make their 50th UEFA club competition appearances in this game.

• Assou-Ekotto and Lazio's Ravel Morrison were team-mates at Queens Park Rangers FC for the latter part of the 2013/14 season, when QPR won promotion to the Premier League.

• St-Étienne's Florentin Pogba is the brother of Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba.

• Lazio's Filip Djordjević played in France for FC Nantes from 2008–14.

The coaches
• St-Étienne coach since 2009, Christophe Galtier led Les Verts to French League Cup success in 2012/13. A defender, he started his playing career at home-town club Olympique de Marseille. He returned to Marseille as a coach and worked as assistant to Alain Perrin at St-Étienne before getting the senior job.

• A central defender, with Juventus and ACF Fiorentina among others, Stefano Pioli took charge of Lazio in 2014. He has been a coach in Italy's top two divisions since 2003, his clubs including home-town side Parma FC, AC Chievo Verona and most recently Bologna FC.