Bordeaux v Slavia Praha facts

With just one point on the board after four Group C fixtures, bottom club Bordeaux must end a long winless run in the UEFA Europa League to preserve any hope of qualification, while visitors Slavia Praha, six points ahead of them in second place, know that a positive result in south-western France could take them into the round of 32 with a game to spare.

• Les Girondins picked up their first point of the section on matchday four as they drew 1-1 at home to group leaders Zenit, having lost all of their opening three fixtures by the odd goal. Failure to beat Slavia by 1-0 or a two-goal margin will eliminate them, as will a victory for FC København at Zenit.

• Slavia have conceded just one goal in accumulating seven points, keeping clean sheets in both back-to-back fixtures against FCK (1-0 away, 0-0 home). They will qualify for the knockout phase if they achieve a better result in Bordeaux than the Danish club manage in St Petersburg.

Previous meetings
• Slavia defeated Bordeaux 1-0 at home on matchday one thanks to a 35th-minute goal from Jaromír Zmrhal. The clubs' only meetings prior to that came in the semi-final of the 1995/96 UEFA Cup, a Girondins side featuring Zinédine Zidane winning both legs 1-0 to become the sixth French club to reach a European final, which they lost 5-1 on aggregate to Bayern München.

• Bordeaux are yet to concede in two games at home to Czech opposition (W1 D1), while Slavia's sole win in nine games against French opponents before this season – and their only one in France – came earlier in that 1995/96 UEFA Cup run, when they defeated Lens 1-0 away after extra time, Karel Poborský scoring the winner.

Form guide
Bordeaux
• Sixth in Ligue 1 last season, Bordeaux negotiated three qualifying ties in order to reach the UEFA Europa League proper. They did so in some style and without a defeat, winning home and away against Ventspils and Mariupol before seeing off Gent 2-0 on aggregate (0-0 away, 2-0 home) in the play-offs.

• The 1996 UEFA Cup runners-up have participated in three previous UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, reaching the round of 16 in 2012/13 but finishing bottom of their section in both 2013/14 and 2015/16. Last season they were eliminated in the third qualifying round on away goals by Hungary's Videoton.

• Bordeaux are without a win in the UEFA Europa League proper in 13 matches (D5 L8) and have won only one of their last nine home games in the competition, group stage to final, losing five.

Slavia
• As runners-up to Viktoria Plzeň in the 2017/18 Czech Liga, Slavia earned a spot in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, where defeat to Dynamo Kyiv (1-1 home, 0-2 away) sent them into the UEFA Europa League group stage. They also won the Czech Cup last term, defeating Jablonec 3-1 in the final.

• Slavia's two previous UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, in 2009/10 and 2017/18, both ended unsuccessfully, a shock matchday six home defeat to Astana ultimately halting their progress last season.

• The 1-0 success in Copenhagen on matchday three was only the second European away win recorded by Slavia in their last 24 such fixtures (D10 L12). However, their record on the road in the past two UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns is a positive W2 D2 L1.

Links and trivia 
• The Girondins' 36-year-old midfielder Jaroslav Plašil is a former Czech Republic international, winning 103 caps between 2004 and 2016. Slavia striker Milan Škoda played alongside him at UEFA EURO 2016.

• Bordeaux are one of ten clubs in the 2018/19 group stage who have lost UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League finals, the others being Anderlecht, Lazio, Vidi, Salzburg, Arsenal, Celtic, Sporting CP, Rangers and, on three occasions, Marseille. Of that group only Anderlecht have lifted the trophy.

• Bordeaux's 13-match run in the UEFA Europa League proper without a victory is just two short of the competition record now held by Apollon Limassol. Les Girondins' last victory was 2-1 at home to another Cypriot club, APOEL, on matchday three in 2013/14.

• Slavia share the best defensive record in this season's competition with Chelsea (Group L), having conceded just one goal. No team has ever gone through a UEFA Europa League group with six successive clean sheets; the record of one goal conceded is held jointly by Standard Liège (2011/12) and Salzburg (2017/18).

The coaches
• Éric Bedouet has a lengthy association with the Girondins, having first served on the club's coaching staff in the title-winning 1998/99 campaign. Widely recognised as one of the most accomplished fitness trainers in France, he also served the national team at UEFA EURO 2016. After standing in as Bordeaux's interim coach twice in 2018, following the departures of Jocelyn Gourvennec and Gus Poyet, he was confirmed as head coach on 5 September – the same day Ricardo Gomes was named as the club's new general manager.

• Heavily influenced by Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, Jindřich Trpišovský started out as a youth coach at Sparta Praha before impressing with his work at second-division Viktoria Žižkov despite financial problems. He then took over at Slovan Liberec in 2017, leading the club into the UEFA Europa League group stage two seasons running. He left Liberec for Slavia in December 2017 and won the Czech Cup with the Prague outfit the following spring.