Sturm Graz has undergone significant changes since their last encounter with French teams in the Champions League two years ago. The club has had a mixed start to the season in the Championship, winning two games, drawing two, and losing one. However, they have recently beaten the leader Linz 2-1 on Sunday, with Oumar Diakité scoring the winning goal. The two main attacking players, Filip Rozga and Otar Kiteichvili, have just returned from injury.
The match will be held at the Liebenau stadium, which has a capacity of 15,400 but only 12,000 tickets had been sold as of Tuesday. The Stade Rennais will be visiting the small stadium, which is named after the late Ivica-Osim, a Yugoslavian player and coach who played for Sturm Graz from 1994 to 2002. The current coach of Sturm Graz, Fabio Ingolitsch, has stated that his team is "outsiders" but is looking forward to playing against a strong team with many individual talents.