Maribor in focus

Liverpool face Maribor in Champions League Group E on Tuesday.

Here, Press Association Sport looks at the Slovenian side.

FORM

Including the final two matches of last season Maribor are unbeaten in 14 league games, winning nine. They have 28 points from 12 fixtures this term, four more than they had at the same stage last term, and are second in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, two points behind Olimpija Ljubljana. Maribor are unbeaten in eight European home fixtures (winning five) and have lost just three of their last 14 games in continental competiton, home and away. However, they have not won any of their seven home matches in the Champions League group stage.

COACH

Maribor coach Darko Milanic is probably the one recognisable name for the Slovenian side, having had a dismal spell at Leeds. Milanic moved to Elland Road in September 2014 but lasted just 32 days. He began his second spell at Maribor - having initially won four league titles from 2008 to 2013 - in March 2016 and won a domestic cup and then the championship again last season. He also managed Sturm Graz in between leaving Maribor and joining Leeds. As a player he won the Yugoslavian league with Partizan Belgrade, whom he joined as a 17-year-old, before moving to Sturm where he won two league titles and three Austrian Cups. He also captained Yugoslavia in Euro 2000. His coaching career started at Izola - the home-town club where he began his playing career - before a brief spell at Gorica.

PLAYERS

Veteran midfielder Dare Vrsic was Slovenia's player of the year, voted for by players, for a second time last season. It reflected the 33-year-old's importance to Maribor's title-winning side, for whom he scored 11 goals and contributed 11 assists. Brazilian Marcos Tavares, the club's all-time leading scorer, scored four goals in six qualifying games but has not found the net in the group proper, with Damjan Bohar registering their only success against Spartak. Last season's top scorer Luka Zahovic, who has yet to find the target, requires surgery and is out of the game after falling in training and breaking a metal plate in his collar bone, inserted eight weeks ago. Jasmin Mesanovic the leading marksman with four goals this campaign.