Rijeka seek Guimarães satisfaction

HNK Rijeka's UEFA Europa League future is hanging by a thread as they prepare for a Group I rematch with Vitória SC, who won in some style when the sides met for the first time on matchday one.

• Rijeka's only hope of getting to the round of 32 hinges on winning both of their remaining Group I games, while victory for Guimarães could propel them up into the top places in the section.

Previous meetings
• The sides' matchday one meeting was Guimarães' first encounter with Croatian opposition and Rijeka's first game against a Portuguese team. It ended 4-0 to the Liga outfit: their biggest win in European competition and Rijeka's heaviest defeat.

• Portuguese and Croatian sides have met in 16 previous UEFA club competition games and the Portuguese teams have had the better of them, earning the record W9 D2 L5 (W8 D0 L1 at home – W1 D2 L4 in Croatia). The four most recent games between clubs from the two countries have been won by the Portuguese side without conceding.

Match background
• Rijeka are unbeaten in five European home games this season (W3 D2).

• Rijeka made it to their first ever UEFA group stage campaign with an unexpected aggregate victory against VfB Stuttgart in this season's UEFA Europa League play-offs.

• Guimarães picked up just one point from four games in their only previous group stage campaign, in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup.

• Guimarães are without a win in eight European away games (D2 L6) since a 1-0 victory at Wisła Kraków in the first round of that 2005/06 campaign.

Team facts
• Guimarães's next goal will be their 50th in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League; this is their 51st game in the two competitions.

• Along with domestic double winners Legia Warszawa (POL) and NK Maribor (SVN), Guimarães are one of 11 cup winners in the group stage, with the others being Wigan Athletic FC (England, FA Cup), Swansea City AFC (Wales, English League Cup), AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands), FC Girondins de Bordeaux (France), Apollon Limassol FC (Cyprus), KRC Genk (Belgium), SS Lazio (Italy) and Esbjerg fB (Denmark).

• Rijeka's Nikola Pokrivač and Guimarães' Moussa Maazou and Chris Malonga are all former AS Monaco FC players, though their paths did not cross in France.

Coach information
• Hired in February 2013, Slovenian coach Matjaž Kek led Rijeka to a third-placed finish at the end of last season and into Europe. Famous for taking his native country to the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals, Kek started and ended his playing career as a defender at NK Maribor – where his father played, and now his son – either side of a long spell in Austria. He returned home to Maribor for his first coaching roles, and more recently had a spell in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ittihad.

• Guimarães have benefited from coach Rui Vitória's ability to nurture young talent since his appointment at the start of 2011/12; the coach led the club to their first major trophy when they beat SL Benfica 2-1 in the 2013 Portuguese Cup final. A lower-league midfielder, he coached Benfica's youth team after hanging up his boots, joining Guimarães following a positive season in charge of FC Paços de Ferreira.