Salzburg v Astra background

FC Salzburg are already certain of clinching top spot in UEFA Europa League Group D as they take on an FC Astra Giurgiu side who will sign off from European competition after matchday six.

• Salzburg will finish top of the section; Astra can finish no higher than third.

Form guide
• Jonatan Soriano scored what proved to be the winner in a 2-1 success for Salzburg when these sides met in Romania on matchday two.

• Unbeaten in Group D, Salzburg are on a four-game European winning streak; they have not lost in four European home fixtures this season (W3 D1).

• Astra have won five of their eight UEFA away matches. They have never drawn a European game on the road.

• Salzburg are comfortably the top scorers in the group stage with 16 goals – an average of over three per game.

Trivia and links
• Salzburg's Alan is the top scorer in the group stage with six goals, and team-mate Jonatan Soriano – last season's UEFA Europa League top marksman with eight – is one of seven players with five strikes to his name.

• Salzburg's Christian Schwegler could make his 50th UEFA club competition appearance against Astra.

The coaches
• Adi Hütter took charge of Salzburg following Roger Schmidt's departure for Bayer 04 Leverkusen in summer 2014. A former midfielder with the club, he coached Salzburg's youth teams before moving into senior football with SCR Altach and SV Grödig, whom he led to promotion and then a third-place finish in Austria last season.

• Astra coach Daniel Isăilă was dismissed during the October international break with his side having won just one of their previous seven games in all competitions.

• Former Soviet Union forward Oleh Protasov is Astra's new coach, having returned to Romania nine years after a five-month spell as FC Steaua Bucureşti coach. The one-time FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, FC Dynamo Kyiv and Olympiacos FC player has coached in Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus as well as in his native Ukraine.