Standard Liège v Panathinaikos background

Standard's past meetings with Panathinaikos will provide plenty of encouragement as they welcome the Greek side for a third time in UEFA Europa League Group G.

Previous meetings
• This is the teams' fifth European encounter, with Standard yet to lose against the Greens (W3 D1).

• In the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League round of 16, Domenico D'Onofrio's Standard beat Nikos Nioplias's Panathinaikos 3-1 in Athens and then 1-0 in Liege.

• The line-ups for that latter fixture in Liege on 18 March 2010 were:
Standard: Bolat, Ramos, Dalmat (Goreux* 72), Mbokani (Traore 90), De Camargo, Camozzato, Sarr, Jovanović (Mangala 82), Witsel, Carcela-González, Pocognoli.
Panathinaikos: Tzorvas, Sarriegi, Kanté, Cissé, Leto* (Christodoulopoulos 82), Salpingidis (Rukavina 69), Gilberto Silva, Bjärsmyr (Ninis 56), Vyntra, Karagounis, Katsouranis.

• Guy Luzon's Standard were held to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the sides' 2014/15 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie, but overcame Ioannis Anastasiou's team 2-1 in the Athens return match.

• The line-ups for the Liege meeting on 30 July 2014 were:
Standard: Kawashima, Jorge Teixeira, Ciman (M'Poku 61), Stam (Milec 88), De Camargo, Carcela-González, Arslangic*, Van Damme, Ezekiel, Marquet, Mujangi Bia (Mbombo 82).
Panathinaikos: Kotsolis*, Koutrombis*, Trianfyllopoulos*, David Mendes (Karelis 71), Lagos, Berg*, Zeca*, Ajagun (Klonaridis 85), Nano, Schildenfeld, Petrić (Pranjić 64).

* registered to play for their club in this season's competition

• Standard's record in ten games against Greek clubs is W7 D2 L1 (W4 D1 at home).

• Panathinaikos's 16 matches against Belgian opposition have ended W3 D5 L8 (D2 L6). They have yet to score in 720 minutes of competitive football in Belgium.

Form guide
• Standard are unbeaten in three European home games over the last two seasons (W2 D1) but have not kept a clean sheet at the Stade Maurice Dufrasne over that period.

• Standard have progressed in two of their five UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns – but missed the cut in their last two attempts, most recently in 2014/15.

• Panathinaikos have not won in 11 UEFA group stage away matches (D2 L9) since a 1-0 success at Sturm Graz in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League.

• Having successfully negotiated their first three UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, Panathinaikos failed to advance in their last two attempts.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Athens to Liege is around 2,000km.

• Panathinaikos's DR Congo international winger Paul-José M'Poku was a Standard player from 2011–15, netting 19 goals in 94 league outings. He came on as a substitute for Standard in their last home game against Panathinaikos (see above).

• Standard winger Mathieu Dossevi represented Panathinaikos's local rivals Olympiacos from 2014–16, while Cypriot international Kostas Laifis is on loan at Standard from the Piraeus club.

• Standard's Jean-François Gillet and Panathinaikos's Sebastián Leto were both on Catania's books in 2015, though the latter was sent on loan to Argentinian outfit Lanús during that period.

The coaches
• Aleksandar Janković replaced Yannick Ferrera at the Standard helm in early September. Once assistant to fellow Serb Slavoljub Muslin at several clubs, the 44-year-old has coached Crvena zvezda, Serbia's Under-21s and – in Belgium – Lokeren and Mechelen.

• Italian coach Andrea Stramaccioni steered Panathinaikos to a third-place finish in Greece last term, his first in Athens. A qualified lawyer whose playing career was curtailed by injury, he specialised as a youth coach before managing Internazionale Milano and Udinese in Serie A.