København v Zlín background
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Article summary
København will be confident of ending a run of three Group F draws when they host a Zlín side who suffered their heaviest European defeat last time on their travels.
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København and Zlín are both still waiting for their first victory in UEFA Europa League Group F, with the Danish champions having drawn their opening three fixtures.
Previous meetings
• The sides crossed swords for the first time on matchday three in Olomouc, where each club found the net for the first time in the group to draw 1-1, København defender Peter Ankersen equalising shortly after Dame Diop had given Zlín an early lead in the club's first meeting with Danish opposition.
• København's record in 11 games against Czech clubs is W3 D3 L5 (W1 D2 L2 in Copenhagen). Their sole home win came in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage, 1-0 against Sparta Praha. The two matches against Czech visitors since then have both ended in defeat.
Form guide
• København's run of three successive Group F draws began with a 0-0 stalemate at home to Lokomotiv Moskva on matchday one.
• Zlín's 3-0 loss at Lokomotiv on matchday two was their heaviest defeat in European competition to date.
• Beaten on away goals by Qarabağ in the UEFA Champions League play-offs, København have failed to progress in all of their last three UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns. They did, however, reach the round of 16 in last season's competition, having crossed over during the winter from the UEFA Champions League.
• Zlín won the Czech Cup for the first time last season; the Ševci (Cobblers) have not played European football since 2005 and are making their group stage debut.
Trivia and links
• The journey from Zlin to Copenhagen is around 750km.
• København possess a Czech defender in Michael Lüftner, who played for Teplice (2012–16) and Slavia Praha (2017) in his domestic league.
• FCK's Slovakian international Ján Greguš also has considerable experience of Czech football, having played for both Baník Ostrava (2009-15) and Jablonec (2015-16).
• København's Federico Santander and Zlín's Jean-David Beauguel were team-mates at Toulouse in 2010/11 – though the latter was a youth-team player at the time.
The coaches
• Ståle Solbakken's second coaching tenure at København began in 2013. He has won seven Danish titles with FCK, including five in his first spell from 2006–11. The former Norway midfielder has also been in charge of Köln and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
• Bohumil Páník started his coaching career with Zlín in 2000, and returned to the club in 2014, his adventures in between including spells with Lech Poznań and Pogoń Szczecin in Poland. He guided Zlín unexpectedly to Czech Cup glory in 2016/17.