Anderlecht desperate for improvement against PSG

RSC Anderlecht are badly in need of points when they face Paris Saint-Germain FC on matchday three in the first meeting between the teams for 21 years.

• The Belgian champions have lost both opening Group C games, 2-0 at SL Benfica and 3-0 at home to Olympiacos FC while PSG got off to a flying start, winning 4-1 in Piraeus and 3-0 at home to Benfica.

Previous meetings
• The teams were paired together in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup third round, when a goalless first leg in Paris preceded a 1-1 draw in Brussels that took PSG through on away goals. John Bosman's 52nd-minute strike had given Anderlecht the lead but Antoine Kombouaré levelled 14 minutes from time. 

• That away goal proved crucial for PSG but it was a rare setback for Anderlecht against French visitors. In seven other home games they have only lost one, the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League play-off when Olympique Lyonnais followed up a 5-1 home win with a 3-1 success away. Anderlecht won four of the other six home matches against Ligue 1 sides.

• In 16 games against French opponents Anderlecht's overall record is W6 D7 L3. 

• PSG scored their biggest European win against Belgian opponents, defeating KAA Gent 7-1 at home in the 2001 Intertoto Cup semi-final after a 0-0 away draw.

• That was the second visit to Belgium; they went down 3-0 away to KSV Waterschei in the 1982/83 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final after a 2-0 home win. In three trips to Belgium, Kombouaré's goal at Anderlecht in December 1992 is the only time PSG have found the net.

• PSG's overall results against Belgian sides are W2 D3 L1.

Match background
• In their tenth UEFA Champions League season, Anderlecht are hoping to improve on their last six campaigns. They finished bottom of Group C last season and suffered the same fate in five group stage campaigns since progressing to the second group stage in 2000/01.

• In those six seasons they have won just four fixtures and when they beat FC Zenit 1-0 on matchday four in last season's competition it was their first home success in the UEFA Champions League proper in nine years.

• In 2012/13, when Anderlecht returned to the competition proper after four qualifying failures, the Belgian champions lost their two other home games, against AC Milan and Málaga CF.

• In the UEFA Champions League for the sixth time, PSG finished top of their group last year and progressed to the quarter-finals where they drew 2-2 at home to FC Barcelona and 1-1 in Spain, losing on away goals. On their travels the French team lost 1-0 at FC Porto before beating both GNK Dinamo Zagreb and FC Dynamo Kyiv 2-0.

• The Ligue 1 champions also won away in the round of 16, 2-1 at Valencia CF, with the home leg ending 1-1.

• Anderlecht won the 1978 European Cup Winners' Cup final in Paris, beating Austria Wien 4-0 in the Parc des Princes.

Team ties
• Demy de Zeeuw and Gregory van der Wiel were team-mates at AFC Ajax between 2009 and 2011.

• John van den Brom was ADO Den Haag's coach when they beat Van der Wiel's Ajax 3-2 at home and 1-0 away in 2010/11.

• Fabrice N'Sakala played for ES Troyes AC from 2008 to 2013.

• Cheikhou Kouyaté's Senegal beat Edinson Cavani's Uruguay 2-0 at Wembley in the group stage at the 2012 Olympic Games.

• Aleksandar Mitrović laid on the only goal of the final against Adrien Rabiot's France to help Serbia lift the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Marijampole, Lithuania on 1 August. 

• Franck Acheampong's Ghana faced Lucas Digne's France in Group A of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in June 2013 and again in the semi-final. France won the first game 3-1 and the second 2-1, going on to take the title.