St-Étienne v Anderlecht background

St-Étienne will seek to avoid a fourth successive 1-1 draw in the UEFA Europa League group stage as Anderlecht fly south in Group C.

Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• In their sole previous encounter with Belgian opponents, St-Étienne drew 1-1 at Club Brugge in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage.

• Anderlecht's 20 games against French sides have ended W7 D9 L4 (W3 D5 L2 in France). Most recently, they played Monaco in last season's UEFA Europa League group stage, drawing 1-1 at home and winning 2-0 in the principality.

Form guide
• St-Étienne are unbeaten in five European fixtures (W2 D3) after drawing their opening Group C match 1-1 at Mainz.

• That was their third straight 1-1 UEFA Europa League group stage draw. Of their 17 group games in this competition, 11 have finished in draws.

• Anderlecht are on a three-match winning streak in Europe, having scored three goals in each of those outings.

• St-Étienne have qualified in two of their past three UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group campaigns.

• Anderlecht have made it through all five previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.

• St-Étienne's Florentin Pogba is the older brother of Manchester United's Paul Pogba.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Brussels to St-Étienne is around 600km, due south.

• Anderlecht's Dennis Appiah and St-Étienne's Stéphane Ruffier (2010–11) and Kévin Malcuit (2010–12) were club-mates at Monaco.

• Anderlecht's on-loan Uroš Spajić (Toulouse 2013–) and Sofiane Hanni (Nantes 2009–11) also have Ligue 1 experience.

The coaches
• St-Étienne coach since 2009, Christophe Galtier steered Les Verts to French League Cup success in 2012/13. He had worked as assistant to Alain Perrin at St-Étienne before getting the senior job. Originally a defender, he started his playing career at home-town club Marseille.

• Capped once by Switzerland, René Weiler is in his first season as Anderlecht coach having spent his first two years of coaching abroad with Nürnberg in Germany from 2014–16. The one-time defender established his coaching reputation in his home country with Schaffhausen and Aarau.