Basel v St-Étienne background

FC Basel 1893 will be plotting a reversal of fortunes at home to AS Saint-Étienne as they lock horns with the French club trailing 3-2 after their UEFA Europa League round of 32 opener.

• Basel rallied from 2-0 down to draw level at 2-2 in France, before Jean-Christophe Bahebeck handed the hosts a slender lead with 77 minutes gone.

• Walter Samuel started Basel's fightback close to half-time, becoming the second oldest scorer in the UEFA Europa League aged 37 years and 332 days. He is surpassed only by Molde FK's Daniel Hestad, who scored at the age of 40 years and 98 days in this season's group stage.

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

• Basel's record in ten matches against French opponents is W3 D4 L3 (W3 D2 L1 at home).

• St-Étienne's record against Swiss opponents is W2 D2 L1 (W1 D0 L1 in Switzerland).

Form guide
• Basel have won only one of their last four European home games (W1 D2 L1).

• St-Étienne have scored at least once in all five of their continental away matches this season.

• Basel most recently played in the round of 32 in 2013/14, when they battled through to the last eight. Their best campaign in this competition was in 2012/13, when they progressed to the semi-finals, losing to eventual winners Chelsea FC.

• St-Étienne were last in the round of 32 in 2008/09, when they eliminated Olympiacos FC en route to a round of 16 loss to Werder Bremen. The nearest they have come to winning this competition was reaching the quarter-finals in successive seasons, in 1979/80 and 1980/81.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Saint-Etienne to Basel is around 350km – the shortest trip for any of the teams playing in the round of 32.

• The 2016 UEFA Europa League final will be held at Basel's St. Jakob-Park on 18 May. Two teams have played one-legged finals in their own stadium in this competition – Feyenoord beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2 in the 2002 showpiece in Rotterdam, but Sporting Clube de Portugal lost 3-1 to PFC CSKA Moskva in the 2005 decider at their Estadio José Alvalade.

• Basel are one of five sides in the round of 32 who qualified for Europe this season as domestic champions along with Galatasaray AŞ (Turkey), FC Midtjylland (Denmark), Molde FK (Norway) and Olympiacos FC (Greece), though Molde have since lost their title to Rosenborg BK.

• St-Étienne are one of four clubs to have made it all the way from the third qualifying round to the last 32 this term, along with Athletic Club, Borussia Dortmund and FC Krasnodar.

• St-Étienne forward Robert Berić was a striker at NK Interblock in his native Slovenia while Basel counterpart Andraž Šporar was coming through the club's youth ranks.

• Basel goalkeeper Germano Vailati briefly played in France for FC Metz in 2009.

The coaches
• Urs Fischer took charge of Basel this summer following Paulo Sousa's move to ACF Fiorentina. The former FC Zürich defender has already led Zürich (2011/12) and FC Thun (2013/14) into the UEFA Europa League group stage, but this is the first time he has taken a team to the knockout phase.

• 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.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Basel won their only previous UEFA penalty shoot-out:
W 4-1 H v Tottenham Hotspur FC (2012/13 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals)

• St-Étienne won their only previous UEFA penalty shoot-out:
W 4-3 H v Kardemir Karabükspor (2014/15 UEFA Europa League play-offs)