Eintracht v Apollon background

With six Group H points already in the bag, Eintracht Frankfurt continue their pursuit of a place in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase with a home fixture against an Apollon Limassol side desperate to avoid an unwanted competition record.

• Eintracht's first European campaign since 2013/14 has got off to an excellent start, a 2-1 win away to last season's beaten finalists Marseille preceding a 4-1 home success against UEFA Europa League regulars Lazio. Apollon, meanwhile, have prolonged their winless streak in the competition proper to 13 successive matches, losing 2-1 at Lazio then salvaging a 2-2 home draw against Marseille with a last-minute equaliser.

Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• Eintracht have won both of their previous matches against Cypriot opposition without conceding, whereas Apollon have lost all three of theirs against German clubs without scoring. Indeed, the Cypriot side's one previous fixture in Germany, a UEFA Europa League group stage encounter at Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2014/15, yielded their heaviest defeat in this competition (0-5).

Form guide
Eintracht
• A dramatic 2017/18 German Cup final victory over Bundesliga champions Bayern München – 3-1 in Berlin – not only gave Eintracht their first major silverware in 30 years but also secured their first European campaign in five.

• Eintracht's only European participation in the past dozen seasons came in 2013/14, when they successfully negotiated the UEFA Europa League play-offs and group stage before going out to Porto in the round of 32.

• The 1980 UEFA Cup winners won four of their five home fixtures in that 2013/14 campaign, including all three in the group stage, and have not lost at home in Europe since 2006 – a run of seven matches (W5 D2). Eintracht have won 12 of their last 15 European home games.

Apollon
• Domestic runners-up in league and cup last term, Apollon's sixth successive season in the UEFA Europa League kicked off in the first qualifying round, where they got the better of Lithuania's Stumbras before ousting Željezničar of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dinamo Brest of Belarus and, on away goals in the play-offs, Basel.

• Apollon have been in three previous UEFA Europa League group campaigns – a fourth is a record for a Cypriot club – but have never progressed beyond this stage, finishing third in their section in 2013/14 and fourth in both 2014/15 and 2017/18. Their record in the group stage is W2 D5 L13 with no wins in the last 13. Should they fail to beat Frankfurt, they will set a new record for the longest run in the competition proper without a victory.

• The Limassol club have won only one of their last seven European away fixtures, losing the other six, although they did draw in last season's group stage at English Premier League side Everton (2-2).

Links and trivia 
• From July 2014 until January 2015, Apollon's Maltese international forward Andre Schembri played for FSV Frankfurt, Eintracht's local rivals.

• Brazilian midfielder Allan is on a season-long loan at Eintracht from Liverpool, having had a similar spell with Apollon in 2017/18.

• Apollon are one of four clubs who have reached this season's UEFA Europa League group stage after starting their campaign in the first qualifying round; the others are FC København, Rangers and Sarpsborg.

• Fotis Papoulis is one goal away from becoming Apollon's joint top scorer in Europe alongside Milenko Špoljarić (11).

The coaches
• Austrian coach Adi Hütter was appointed by Eintracht Frankfurt as the successor to Bayern München-bound Niko Kovač in May 2018, having just led Young Boys to their first Swiss league title in 32 years. A midfielder who spent seven years with Salzburg, he returned to lead the club to a domestic double in 2014/15 after managerial spells at Altach and Grödig. He then crossed the border to spend the next three seasons in Berne.

• Sofronis Avgousti has coached home-town team Apollon since December 2016, when, as caretaker, he led the club to victory in each of his first eight league matches and to a successful defence of the Cypriot Cup. He has since steered them into back-to-back UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns. Capped 11 times by Cyprus, he previously served the Limassol club in three separate spells as a goalkeeper and was also on the books of AEK Larnaca, Aris Limassol and APOEL.