LASK v PSV facts

Having held PSV Eindhoven to a 0-0 draw in the Netherlands to end the Dutch side's perfect start to Group D, LASK will be hoping to join their table-topping hosts on seven points with a victory at the Linzer Stadion.

• Before drawing a blank on Matchday 3, PSV struck seven goals in their first two fixtures, three of them scored by 20-year-old Donyell Malen, who got one on Matchday 1 at home to Sporting CP (3-2) and two on Matchday 2 at Rosenborg (4-1). LASK, meanwhile, beat the Norwegian champions 1-0 at home before going down 2-1 in Lisbon and drawing in Eindhoven.

Previous meetings
• The Matchday 3 encounter was LASK's first competitive encounter against Dutch opposition.

• PSV have now played 13 games against Austrian clubs, winning nine and losing just two, with LASK becoming the first Austrian side to avoid defeat in Eindhoven. They were victorious on their most recent visit to Austria, defeating St Pölten 3-2 in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round second leg to complete a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Form guide
LASK
• Runners-up to Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga last season, LASK also took part in UEFA competition for the first time since 2000. Having defeated Lillestrøm in the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, they were then eliminated by Beşiktaş on away goals (0-1 a, 2-1 h).

• LASK entered Europe this season in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, where they recorded a 5-2 aggregate victory against Switzerland's Basel (2-1 a, 3-1 h) but could not repeat the trick in the play-offs, losing home (0-1) and away (1-2) to Club Brugge and therefore entering the UEFA Europa League group stage instead.

• LASK have won five of their last seven European home games, the sole defeat during that sequence coming in that UEFA Champions League play-off tie against Club Brugge.

PSV
• PSV ceded the Dutch title to Ajax last season, finishing runners-up, while also playing second fiddle to their Amsterdam rivals in the UEFA Champions League as they dropped out at the group stage, finishing bottom of a tough section comprising Barcelona, Tottenham and Internazionale.

• This season the Eindhoven club's UEFA Champions League hopes were extinguished early as they were beaten by Basel on away goals (3-2 h, 1-2 a) in the second qualifying round, but they recovered to knock Haugesund and Apollon Limassol out of the UEFA Europa League and reach the group stage for the seventh time. They have gone through to the knockout phase on four of the previous six occasions, reaching the quarter-finals in 2010/11.

• PSV were unbeaten in their first nine away games in the UEFA Europa League group stage (W7 D2) but have been less successful in the ten since (W4 D2 L4) and have subsequently gone nine games without a victory on the road during the autumn in the UEFA Champions League (D3 L6).

Links and trivia 
• Opposition coaches Valérien Ismaël and Mark van Bommel were team-mates at Bayern München in 2006/07, although Ismaël was sidelined with injury for most of that season.

• LASK's Australian midfielder James Holland launched his European career in the Netherlands with AZ Alkmaar in 2009 before spending a season on loan at Sparta Rotterdam. Also with AZ at the time was current PSV defender Nick Viergever.

• LASK are one of six clubs making their debut this season in the UEFA Europa League group stage, along with Espanyol, Wolves, Olexandriya, Ferencváros and fellow Austrians Wolfsberg.

The coaches
• A former central defender who started out with home-town club Strasbourg, Ismaël spent the latter part of his career in Germany, winning the domestic double with both Werder Bremen and Bayern. His final club, Hannover, gave the Frenchman his first coaching opportunity in charge of the reserves, and he occupied a similar role at Wolfsburg, which was punctuated by a brief spell as head coach at Nürnberg. After another short stint as the main man at Wolfsburg, from October 2016 to February 2017, he resurfaced in Austria as the new boss of LASK in May 2019.

• A feisty, all-purpose midfielder whose playing career was festooned with honours, Van Bommel won the national championship of every country in which he played, adding a Liga crown – plus UEFA Champions League glory – with Barcelona, two Bundesliga triumphs with Bayern and a Serie A title with AC Milan to four Eredivisie successes with PSV. Capped 79 times by the Netherlands, he retired in 2013 and returned to PSV as head coach in 2018 having assisted his father-in-law Bert van Marwijk's Australia side at the FIFA World Cup in Russia.