Internazionale v H. Beer-Sheva background

Internazionale have been thrown a curveball in their opening UEFA Europa League Group K game as Hapoel Beer-Sheva come to San Siro.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time; neither has played a competitive fixture against a team from their opponents' home country.

• In 12 UEFA competition fixtures between Italian and Israeli clubs, the Serie A representatives have recorded six wins, three draws and three defeats. Italian sides are unbeaten in their last seven encounters with Israeli counterparts (W5 D2).

Form guide
• Inter's 2-1 loss to Wolfsburg in their last European match – in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League round of 16 – ended an 11-game unbeaten UEFA home run at San Siro (W7 D4).

• UEFA Cup winners in 1991, 1994 and 1998, Inter have made it through both of their previous UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.

• Beer-Sheva are without a win in their last five European away fixtures (D2 L3).

• The Israeli team are making their UEFA group stage debut this season, having fallen to Celtic in the UEFA Champions League play-offs.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Beer Sheva to Milan is around 2,700km.

• Inter midfieler Felipe Melo's next match will be his 50th in UEFA club competition.

• Inter have played more UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League games than any other club, 175, and have also won (87) and drawn (43) the most games in the competitions.

The coaches
• Hired by Inter this summer, Frank de Boer had managed Ajax since 2010, and in 2014 became the first coach to lead the club to four successive Eredivisie titles. The former defender won the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League as an Ajax player.

• Beer-Sheva boss Barak Bakhar steered the club to their first Israeli championship in 2015/16, his first term in charge. He previously landed the 2013/14 Israeli Cup at the helm of Kiryat Shmona, where he had spent the bulk of his playing career as a defender.