Lazio v Zulte Waregem background

Plenty of goals have been scored in Lazio's most recent European home games, with Zulte Waregem eager to get their share in UEFA Europa League Group K.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time and it is Zulte Waregem's maiden encounter with Italian opponents.

• A pair of 2000/01 UEFA Champions League second group stage meetings with Anderlecht represent the sum of Lazio's experience of Belgian opponents: they lost 1-0 in Brussels and won 2-1 at home.

Form guide
• One team or other has scored three goals in Lazio's last five European home games – four wins followed by a 3-0 loss to Sparta Praha in the 2015/16 round of 16.

• Zulte Waregem are unbeaten in their last four European away games: W3 D1.

• Zulte Waregem's 5-1 home loss to Nice on matchday one was their heaviest home defeat in UEFA competition.

• Zulte Waregem claimed their second Belgian Cup in 2016/17; they made it through the UEFA Cup group stage in 2006/07, but could not emulate that success in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League.

• Beaten UEFA Cup finalists in 1998 (and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winners the following year), Lazio are back in the UEFA Europa League after a one-season absence, having reached the last 16 in 2015/16.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Waregem to Rome is around 1,200km.

• Lazio's Jordan Lukaku (Anderlecht 2011–13, Oostende 2013–16), Sergej Milinković-Savić (Genk 2014–15) and Adam Marušić (Kortrijk 2014–16, Oostende 2016–17) have Belgian league experience.

• Milinković-Savić and Zulte Waregem's Sandy Walsh were team-mates at Genk (2014–15).

• Zulte-Waregem have an Italian goalkeeper, Nicola Leali, who played for Brescia (2010–12) and Juventus (2012–16, including loan spells with Lanciano, Spezia, Cesena and Frosinone).

• The club's Cypriot winger Grigoris Kastanos is also on loan from Juventus, having played for Pescara in Serie B in 2016/17.

The coaches
• Lazio boss since 2016, Simone Inzaghi represented the club as a forward from 1999–2010, and stayed on to coach the club's youth teams. He is the younger brother of fellow ex-Italian international Filippo Inzaghi, the pair initially playing together at home-town club Piacenza.

• Francky Dury's second coming as Zulte Waregem coach began in 2012, and he led them to a second Belgian Cup success last season. Zultse and – post-merger – Zulte Waregem boss from 1994–2010, he occupied the Gent and Belgium Under-21 helms prior to his return.