Monaco determined to blunt Basel

Trailing to David Degen's decisive 78th-minute strike after the first leg of their UEFA Cup Round of 32 tie against FC Basel 1893, AS Monaco FC will look to make home advantage pay in the return encounter at the Stade Louis II. But the Swiss side will be buoyant after recording their first triumph – and goal – against French opposition in four attempts, including a 2-0 defeat by RC Strasbourg in their opening fixture of the group stage.

• Amara Diané and Arthur Boka were both on target in that surprise win, but Basel bounced back with a 2-1 victory against FK Crvena Zvezda in their next outing. Julio Rossi was the hero, rifling in a last-gasp winner to seal three points, which Christian Gross's team doubled in an absorbing 4-3 win against Tromsø IL. Basel had no answer to AS Roma in their final group outing as they lost 3-1, but with Strasbourg holding Crvena Zvezda elsewhere, they still qualified.

• Like Basel, Monaco's Group A campaign also got off to a poor start when the side suffered an unexpected 1-0 defeat at Viking FK on Matchday 1. The 2003/04 UEFA Champions League finalists bounced back with an impressive 2-0 victory against Hamburger SV at the Stade Louis II and from then they did not look back. They overcame SK Slavia Praha by the same margin, before sealing their progress as section winners with a 2-1 triumph at home to PFC CSKA Sofia.

• Remarkably, despite playing over 140 games in UEFA competition, the first leg against Basel was Monaco's first meeting with Swiss opposition. For Gross's team, the Strasbourg defeat earlier in the competition had stretched their record against French sides to three games without a goal, before David Degen saw an end to that.

• Basel were also drawn against French opposition in the Round of 32 last season, when they were paired with an in-form LOSC Lille Métropole. After the first leg ended all-square at St. Jakob-Park, goals from Matt Moussilou and Milenko Ačimovič earned Lille a place in the last 16.