Rosenborg v Zenit background

With nine points and a plus-nine goal difference, Zenit have the best record in this season's UEFA Europa League group stage after three matches. A second win in a fortnight against Rosenborg would guarantee the Russian club's safe passage from Group L to the round of 32.

Previous meetings
• Zenit beat Rosenborg 3-1 in St Petersburg on matchday three thanks to a hat-trick from Emiliano Rigoni. Pål André Helland scored a late consolation for the Norwegian visitors.

• The teams had previously met in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 32, Vlastimil Petržela's Zenit progressing with a 2-0 win in Trondheim and a 2-1 success against Per-Mathias Hogmø's side in St Petersburg.

• Zenit have now won all five of their games against Norwegian clubs in UEFA competition, scoring 11 goals and conceding two.

• Six of Rosenborg's seven matches against Russian opponents have ended in defeat (W1 L6), the only victory – 2-0 at home to Dinamo Moskva in a 1992/93 UEFA Cup first-round tie – providing mere consolation after a 5-1 first-leg defeat.

Form guide
• Rosenborg have won only three of their 12 home fixtures in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage (D2 L7), the latest win coming on matchday two against Vardar (3-1).

• Zenit have won six of their seven away fixtures in the UEFA Europa League group stage, including 5-0 at Vardar on matchday one of this season's competition.

• Rosenborg, who won both legs against last season's runners-up Ajax in the play-offs, have appeared in four UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns but are still to make further progress – although they have been in the round of 32 on three occasions directly via the UEFA Champions League group stage.

• UEFA Cup winners in 2008, Zenit finished third in Russia last term; they have competed in either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League group stage in every season since, playing European football in the spring on each occasion.

Trivia and links
• The journey from St Petersburg to Trondheim is around 1,100km.

• Rosenborg are celebrating the 100th anniversary of their foundation this year.

• Zenit and Group L rivals Real Sociedad are the group stage's leading scorers after three matchdays with 11 goals each – half as many as the record number for the group stage, the 22 scored by Napoli in 2015/16.

• Zenit's Rigoni leads the group stage scorers' chart with five goals; his team-mate Aleksandr Kokorin is one of four players on four.

• Zenit have previously managed to go through a UEFA Europa League group stage without dropping a point – in 2010/11. Only Salzburg have achieved that feat twice.

The coaches
• Trondheim-born Kåre Ingebrigtsen took over in 2014. He played for the club in three spells as a midfielder, and was on the books at Manchester City from 1992–94.

• Roberto Mancini took charge of Zenit in June 2017. A European Cup Winners' Cup winner as a player with Sampdoria in 1989/90 and Lazio in 1998/99, he coached Internazionale and Manchester City to league championships, and more recently claimed a Turkish Cup at Galatasaray.