Malmö v Beşiktaş facts

Defeated 2-0 at Genk on matchday one, Swedish champions Malmö will be looking to get their first points on the board in UEFA Europa League Group I as they host a Beşiktaş side who opened with a 3-1 home win against Sarpsborg.

Previous meetings
• Malmö hold a slight advantage in the clubs' four previous meetings (W2 D1 L1), although both they and Beşiktaş have won a tie apiece; the Swedish side in the 1990/91 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round (3-2 home, 2-2 away), the Turkish club at the same stage of the UEFA Cup 15 years later (0-1 home, 4-1 away).

• Malmö have faced no other Turkish opponents, while Beşiktaş's four UEFA Champions League matches against IFK Göteborg were all won by the home side, giving the Istanbul club an all-time record in Sweden of W1 L3.

Form guide
Malmö
• Swedish champions for a record 20th time in 2017, Malmö began this season's European campaign in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round. Their bid to reach the group stage of that competition for the third time in five years was halted on the away goals rule by Hungarian champions Vidi in the third qualifying round but they secured an autumn of European participation – as Sweden's sole representatives – by winning a Scandinavian derby against Danish title holders Midtjylland in the UEFA Europa League play-offs. Their eight qualifying matches brought four wins and four draws.

• Malmö's only previous UEFA Europa League group stage involvement was in 2011/12, when they opened with a 4-1 defeat at Dutch club AZ Alkmaar and never recovered, finishing bottom of the section with just one point. The club have played nine home games in European group stages and won only two, losing six.

• There have been draws in each of Malmö's last three home European fixtures. They are unbeaten in their last five, but the last time they lost – 0-5 against Paris Saint-Germain in the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League – it constituted the club's heaviest home defeat in UEFA competition.

Beşiktaş
• Bidding for a hat-trick of Turkish titles, Beşiktaş could only finish fourth in the 2017/18 Süper Lig, which earned them a berth in the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round. They saw off B36, LASK and, in the play-offs, Partizan to reach the group stage.

• Beşiktaş are back in the UEFA Europa League after a season's absence, during which they reached the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League as group winners. They have progressed from their group three times out of four in the UEFA Europa League, though the one failure came on their most recent appearance, in 2015/16. They reached the quarter-finals of the competition the following season after switching over from the UEFA Champions League in mid-campaign.

• The Istanbul club won all three away fixtures in last season's UEFA Champions League group – at Porto, Monaco and RB Leipzig – to top their section for the first time. They have won at least once on the road in each of their four previous UEFA Europa League group campaigns, their overall away record standing at W5 D4 L3.

Links and trivia 
• Jeremain Lens, who scored Beşiktaş's third goal on matchday one against Sarpsborg, needs one more UEFA Europa League appearance to reach the half-century – and become only the third player to do so, after Daniel Carriço and Markel Susaeta. The Dutchman has previously featured in the competition for PSV Eindhoven, Dynamo Kyiv and Fenerbahçe.

• Beşiktaş have played 41 matches in the UEFA Europa League, group stage to final – the same number as Istanbul rivals, and Group D participants, Fenerbahçe. This will be Malmö's eighth game in the competition proper, matching the record number for a Swedish club set last season by Östersund.

The coaches
• Born in the former East Germany, Uwe Rösler left his homeland in 1994 to play up front for Manchester City, which he did for four years, thus forming a bond with English football that has brought him back to the country to manage four different lower-league clubs. His coaching career began in Norway, with Lillestrøm, his final club as a player, and in June 2018 he returned to Scandinavia to become the new head coach of reigning Swedish champions Malmö.

• Beşiktaş coach Şenol Güneş famously guided Turkey to third place at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. A goalkeeper who spent the majority of his playing career at home-town Trabzonspor, a club he has returned to coach on three occasions – winning Turkish Cups in 1995 and 2010 – he led Beşiktaş to the 2015/16 Turkish title in his first season and subsequently took the Black Eagles to the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals and last term's UEFA Champions League round of 16 for the first time.