Austria Wien v Roma background
Monday, October 24, 2016
Article summary
Austria Wien will look to pick up where they left off when they meet Roma for a second time in Group E, having scored the final two goals in their previous encounter.
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Article body
Austria Wien and Roma are unbeaten in UEFA Europa League Group E but might prefer to avoid another draw if they are to keep Astra Giurgiu and Viktoria Plzeň out of the qualifying picture.
Previous meetings
• The sides met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday three; Roma went 3-1 up on what was Francesco Totti's 100th UEFA club competition outing but were pegged back to 3-3 late on.
• Austria Wien have won just once in 11 matches against Italian teams (W1 D5 L5 – W1 D2 L2 in Austria), beating Internazionale Milano 2-1 in Vienna in a November 1983 UEFA Cup game. They have not triumphed in eight attempts against Italian sides since.
• Roma defeated Wacker Innsbruck 4-1 away and 1-0 at home in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup first round, in their only previous encounters with Austrian opponents.
Form guide
• Austria are unbeaten in six European games – four wins followed by two draws.
• Roma are without a victory in seven European away fixtures (D4 L3) since a 2-1 success at Feyenoord in February 2015.
• Austria have failed to progress in their last four UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns since making it to the last eight in 2004/05.
• Roma advanced in both of their previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage appearances (2005/06, 2009/10).
Links and trivia
• The journey from Rome to Vienna is around 750km.
• On matchday two Totti became the eighth fortysomething to feature in the UEFA Europa League, taking the pitch two days after his 40th birthday. Brad Friedel remains the oldest participant at 42 years and 173 days, while the oldest outfield player is David Weir at 40 years and 283 days.
The coaches
• A four-time Bundesliga winner as a Bayern München midfielder, Thorsten Fink has been in charge at Austria Wien since 2015. Twice a league champion in Switzerland as Basel coach between 2009 and 2011, he subsequently occupied the helm at Hamburg and APOEL.
• Fink scored twice against Roma in a 3-0 Karlsruhe victory in the 1996/97 UEFA Cup and faced them four times as a coach with Basel (W2 L2).
• Luciano Spalletti returned to Roma in January after five years in Russia with Zenit, where he claimed two league titles. He lifted the Coppa Italia twice with Roma from 2005–09, having made his name by leading unfancied Udinese to fourth place in Serie A in 2004/05.
• Fink and Spalletti were on opposite benches when Roma and Basel met in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage; Fink's Basel prevailed 2-0 at home but lost 2-1 in Rome.