Anderlecht strive for perfection as Sturm visit

RSC Anderlecht will complete their passage to the UEFA Europa League round of 32 with a fourth successive Group L win, having beaten Austrian champions SK Sturm Graz 2-0 last time out. Previous meetings • Guillaume Gillet (66) put Anderlecht ahead when the sides met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday three, with the dismissal of Thomas Burgstaller soon afterwards magnifying Sturm's problems. Matías Suárez (75) duly made it 2-0 before the end. • The margin of defeat matched Sturm's worst ever home result in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League, a 3-1 loss against S.S. Lazio on 28 November 2002. • Prior to their matchday three meeting, Sturm had not played Belgian opponents since the first round of the 1974/75 UEFA Cup. In that tie they were eliminated by R. Antwerp FC on away goals, winning 2-1 at home but losing 1-0 in Deurne. • Anderlecht's eight meetings with Austrian sides have ended W5 D2 L1 (W2 D1 L0 in Brussels). They famously beat FK Austria Wien 4-0 in the final of the 1978 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in Paris. Match background • Anderlecht's record in nine UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage home games in W5 D2 L2. • Sturm's 2-1 win at AEK Athens FC on matchday two was their first victory on the road in four attempts in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage. They had gone eight games without an away win in UEFA competition since a 1-0 victory at FC Metalist Kharkiv in the UEFA Europa League play-offs on 27 August 2009. Team facts • Anderlecht's Suárez is the group stage's top scorer with five goals. FC Vaslui's Wesley, SC Braga's Hélder Barbosa, FC Lokomotiv Moskva's Dmitri Sychev and Fulham FC's Andrew Johnson are his closest rivals with three each. • Anderlecht are one of three clubs with 100% records after matchday three, alongside PSV Eindhoven and Sporting Clube de Portugal. • Anderlecht's first goal against Sturm was their 200th in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League. This is their 118th game in the two competitions. • Sturm's Imre Szabics and Anderlecht's Roland Juhász know each other from their time together in the Hungarian national team. • German defender Franco Foda finished his playing career at Sturm following spells with the likes of Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1990-94) and VfB Stuttgart (1994-96). He joined Sturm's coaching staff after hanging up his boots in 2001 aged 35, and following a brief first stint in charge in 2003, has been first-team boss since 2006. • Ariël Jacobs has been Anderlecht coach since November 2007. Once a striker, he spent most of his playing career with K. Diegem Sport, serving the Belgian side in four separate spells (1965-70, 1973-79, 1980-1983 and 1984-87). He later coached youth teams for the Royal Belgian Football Association (URBSFA-KBVB) and acted as assistant to national team boss Guy Thys before returning to club football with RWD Molenbeek, RAA Louviéroise, KSC Lokeren OV and R. Excelsior Mouscron. • Lokomotiv coach José Couceiro was in caretaker charge at Sporting Clube de Portugal for the latter part of the 2010/11 season before replacing Yuri Krasnozhan as Lokomotiv boss in July. Since coaching Portugal's Under-21s from 2006 to 2007, he has been in charge at FBK Kaunas, Lithuania and Gaziantepspor. • AEK parted company with Spanish coach Manuel Jiménez by mutual consent in early October. Kostenoglou – who made over 220 league appearances for AEK between 1994 and 2005 – has been named as his replacement. • The 41-year-old started his coaching career in the club's youth system before assisting Lorenzo Serra Ferrer and, when the Spaniard was dismissed, taking over as caretaker until the end of 2007/08. He was most recently in charge of Larissa FC (2011), following a spell with Asteras Tripolis FC (2008-09).