FC Internazionale Milano can no longer finish top of UEFA Europa League Group H, but are certain of second place as they play host to eliminated Neftçi PFK.

Group H permutations
• FC Rubin Kazan are through as group winners due to their superior head-to-head over Inter.

• Inter are through as runners-up.

• FK Partizan and Neftçi are out.

Previous meetings
•  Inter won 3-1 in Baku on matchday two in what was the first UEFA game between clubs from Azerbaijan and Italy. The Nerazzurri strode into a three-goal lead by the break, Fredy Guarín setting up Coutinho, Joel Obi and then Marko Livaja. Nicolás Canales got one back in the 53rd minute as Neftçi upped their game.

• The only other previous form the teams have to go by is from the two games Azerbaijan played against Italy in UEFA EURO 2004 qualifying – the Azzurri won 2-0 at the Tofig Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku and 4-0 in the return fixture in Reggio Calabria.

• Under-21 and under-age sides from Azerbaijan and Italy have met in nine previous UEFA games. The first – between U16 sides – ended in a 0-0 draw in 1997, but Italy have won all eight of the subsequent meetings, and it took until the most recent of those – a 2-1 win for Italy's U19s in October 2011 – for the Azeri sides to register their first goal.

Match background
• Inter are competing in the UEFA Europa League group stage for the first time.

• Inter have won just once in their four UEFA home games this season (W1 D2 L1).

• Neftçi have won just once in their last 11 European away games (D3 L7), unexpectedly beating APOEL FC 3-1 in this season's UEFA Europa League play-offs.

• They have only won two of 20 away fixtures in Europe in total, losing 15.

Team facts
• Neftçi are the first Azerbaijani side to make it to the group stage of a UEFA club competition. With seven league titles, they are the most successful club in Azerbaijan since independence, and set a Soviet-era high-water mark for the republic by finishing third in the USSR's top division in 1966.

• Inter's coach is Andrea Stramaccioni, who stepped in on a caretaker basis to replace Claudio Ranieri in March 2012 and was then handed a contract for the 2012/13 campaign. A defender whose career was cut short by a serious injury at Bologna FC, he specialised in coaching youth teams, taking charge of the AS Roma and then Inter junior selections before getting the senior job.

• Boyukagha Hajiyev is the coach of Neftçi. A coach and player at now-defunct MFK Araz-Naxçivan, he spent several years coaching in Iran and was Vagif Sadygov's assistant with the national team in 2005. Having won a first national title in what was initially a caretaker spell at FK Bakı in 2005/06, Hajiyev won the crown again in 2011/12, his first season at Neftçi.