This is the first competitive meeting between Cluj and Basel and neither side have played a team from their opposition’s country before.Basel qualified with victories over VSC Debrecen (2-0, 3-1) and Sheriff Tiraspol (1-0, 3-0) while Cluj were directly seeded as Romanian champions.
Basel won the Swiss championship in both 2008 and 2010, and were also able to win the Swiss Cup in the same seasons.
Cluj have won the Romanian championship in 2008 and 2010, and were also able to win the Romanian Cup in the last three consecutive years (2008 through 2010).
On the last occasion that CFR Cluj played in the Champions League (2008/09), the Romanian side had the best tackle success rate in the competition – 83%.
Basel were last in the Champions League group stages in 2008/09, where they won just one point, scored only two goals and conceded 16.
In 2008/09, Basel converted just 3.9% of their chances; the lowest rate in the competition.