AZ v Partizan background

Shaken by back-to-back defeats, Group L's bottom two clubs, AZ Alkmaar and FK Partizan, meet on matchday five of the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League.

• AZ are out if they lose and will be eliminated with a draw if FC Augsburg beat Athletic Club in the section's other game.

Previous meetings
• Partizan edged ten-man AZ 3-2 when the sides met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday one.

• AZ's only previous encounters with Serbian opponents came during a 7-2 aggregate third round win against FK Radnicki Niš en route to defeat by Ipswich Town FC in the final of the 1980/81 UEFA Cup.

• Partizan's five games against Dutch sides have ended W3 D0 L2 (W0 D0 L2 in the Netherlands).

Form guide
• The team that has scored the first goal has gone on to win in AZ's last six European home games – four AZ wins and two for the visitors.

• Partizan have gone off the boil since winning their opening two Group L fixtures – their best start to a UEFA group stage.

• In seven previous campaigns in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage, AZ have made it to the knockout stage five times, most recently in 2013/14, when they got as far as the last eight.

• Partizan have featured in this group stage six times, but have not made it to the round of 32 since their first appearance in 2004/05.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Belgrade to Alkmaar is over 1,400km.

• AZ's Serbian left-back Rajko Brežančić started his career at Partizan and played for FK Bežanija, FK Metalac and FK Čukarički before coming to the Netherlands this summer.

• Partizan's Ivan Bandalovski and Stefan Babović both spent time in the Netherlands with Feyenoord.

• Partizan are one of ten domestic champions in this season's group stage, along with KF Skenderbëu (Albania), Qarabağ FK (Azerbaijan), APOEL FC (Cyprus), FC Viktoria Plzeň (Czech Republic), FC Midtjylland (Denmark), KKS Lech Poznań (Poland), Celtic FC (Scotland), Molde FK (Norway) and FC Basel 1893 (Switzerland).

The coaches
• AZ coach since 2014, John van den Brom spent the bulk of his playing career as a midfielder at Vitesse. Capped twice by the Netherlands, he went on to coach AFC Ajax's youth team, ADO Den Haag and Vitesse before heading to RSC Anderlecht and winning the Belgian title in 2012/13.

• Ljubinko Drulović replaced Zoran Milinković at Partizan ahead of matchday three. Most recently coach of FYR Macedonia, he was a winger at Partizan towards the end of a playing career in which he won five Portuguese titles with FC Porto. Now 47, the former Yugoslavian international was briefly stand-in coach of Serbia in 2014.