Rosenborg v LASK facts

With defeats in each of their opening four fixtures, Rosenborg have only pride to play for in Group D, whereas LASK come to Trondheim knowing that victory could take them through to the round of 32 with a game to spare.

• Back-to-back defeats by Sporting CP on Matchday 3 (0-1 a) and 4 (0-2 h) ended Rosenborg's hopes of further progress after they had also gone down to LASK (0-1 a) and PSV Eindhoven (1-4 h) in their first two fixtures. In contrast, the Austrian side are well placed to qualify, having come from behind to beat PSV 4-1 in Linz last time out – after a 0-0 draw in Eindhoven – and join them on seven points.

• LASK's head-to-head advantage over PSV means they will secure a round of 32 berth on Matchday 5 should they win in Trondheim and the Dutch side lose away to Sporting.

Previous meetings
• The clubs had never met in UEFA competition until Matchday 1, when LASK prevailed 1-0 in Linz thanks to a first-half added-time strike from Australian midfielder James Holland.

• Rosenborg also met Austrian opponents last season and were heavily beaten twice by Salzburg in their UEFA Europa League group, 0-3 away and 2-5 at home a fortnight later. Their overall record in 11 matches against Austrian teams is now W3 D1 L7, with defeats in the last five.

• LASK were convincing victors against Lillestrøm in last season's UEFA Europa League second qualifying round, winning 6-1 on aggregate (4-0 h, 2-1 a) in their only previous tie against Norwegian opposition.

Form guide
Rosenborg
• Rosenborg won their tenth Norwegian domestic double last year, adding a 12th cup victory to a 26th league title – both national records. It was their fourth Eliteserien triumph in a row. They also played 14 European fixtures in 2018, ending their campaign in the UEFA Europa League group stage, where they lost their first five matches before a consolation 1-1 draw at RB Leipzig on matchday six.

• European participants in 30 of the last 31 seasons, this is the Trondheim club's sixth appearance in the UEFA Europa League group stage, and on each occasion they have failed to reach the knockout phase. The last time they finished in the top two of a European group came in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League.

• Rosenborg kicked off this season in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round, eliminating Linfield, BATE Borisov and Maribor before losing to Dinamo Zagreb in the play-offs. Though unbeaten at home over that stretch, they lost all three UEFA Europa League group games in Trondheim last season, and are now on a run of six successive home defeats in the group stage as well as a sequence of 14 games without a victory in the competition proper, home and away.

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, they were then eliminated by Beşiktaş in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round 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.

• The Linz club have lost six of their last ten European away games (W2 D2).

Links and trivia 
• Rosenborg's run of 14 matches in the UEFA Europa League proper without a victory is one shy of the competition record, set last season by Apollon Limassol.

• Rosenborg can not make it five successive Norwegian championship wins in 2019, Molde having already secured the title with two games to go. Indeed, Rosenborg's Tippeligaen campaign ends this coming Sunday with a home game against Ranheim, which they must win while hoping third-placed Odd lose at Haugesund in order to qualify for next season's UEFA Europa League.

• 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 Austrian side Wolfsberg.

• LASK have won their last seven matches in the Austrian Bundesliga and are now just a point behind league leaders Salzburg.

• Rosenborg are one of three clubs to have lost all of their opening four group games in this season's UEFA Europa League; Beşiktaş (Group K) and Astana (L) are the others.

• The Norwegian club have now lost more matches in the UEFA Europa League, group stage to final, than any other club, the Matchday 4 loss at home to Sporting being their 25th – one more than Rapid Wien.

• Rosenborg striker Alexander Søderlund's next European appearance will be his 50th.

The coaches
• After a playing career spent mostly in the Norwegian lower leagues with Vard Haugesund but latterly with local rivals FK Haugesund, Eirik Horneland became an assistant coach with the latter before taking charge of Norway's national Under-19 side in 2015. At the end of the following year he returned to Haugesund as head coach, where he spent two seasons, the second of which brought a fourth-placed finish in the Eliteserien and earned him, at 43, the plum job at reigning champions Rosenborg, where he replaced Dutch interim boss Rini Coolen.

• A former central defender who started out with home-town club Strasbourg, Valérien 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.