Shakhtar aim to shut door on La Real

Real Sociedad de Fútbol visit Ukraine for the first time to face FC Shakhtar Donetsk in a match that could seal their fate in Group A.

• Jagoba Arrasate's men earned their first point when holding Manchester United FC 0-0 on matchday four but they remain bottom of the group and four points adrift of third-placed Shakhtar. The San Sebastian side will only keep their faint UEFA Champions League hopes alive if they beat Shakhtar and United win at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the group's other game.

• Shakhtar need only a draw to make sure of third place ahead of La Real, while a victory would lift them above Leverkusen into second place if the German team were to lose.

Match background
• Shakhtar are seeking their first home success in five matches in the UEFA Champions League. With their two Group A home draws against United and Leverkusen, they have now gone four matches without a victory at the Donbass Arena – a sequence that also includes last season's defeat by Juventus and draw with Borussia Dortmund.

• Beaten by a single goal at both Leverkusen and United, La Real had previously won at Olympique Lyonnais in the play-offs. Their last away success in the UEFA Champions League proper came at Galatasaray AŞ in September 2003.

• Shakhtar's last home meeting with Liga opposition brought a 1-0 loss against FC Barcelona in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, a result that completed a 6-1 aggregate defeat. Andriy Pyatov, Tomáš Hübschman, Luiz Adriano, Vyacheslav Shevchuk, Douglas Costa, Vasil Kobin, Eduardo and Yaroslav Rakitskiy – scorer of Shakhtar's first-leg goal – all featured in the second leg at the Donbass Arena.

• Ilsinho scored when Shakhtar lost 2-1 at home to Barcelona in the 2008/09 group stage.

• Shakhtar's overall home record against Liga clubs is W1 D3 L3. That solitary victory came in the 2004/05 group stage when Julius Aghahowa scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Barcelona – a result that came in Mircea Lucescu's first campaign at the club and secured them third place and passage to the UEFA Cup. Hübschman, Darijo Srna and Dmytro Chygrynskiy all played for Shakhtar.

• Shakhtar lost the 2009 UEFA Super Cup 1-0 against Barcelona in Monaco.

Team ties
• Lucescu's first home meeting with Spanish opposition came 40 years ago with FC Dinamo Bucureşti in a 2-0 defeat by Club Atlético de Madrid in the 1973/74 European Champion Clubs' Cup second round. His overall home record against teams from Spain, as player and coach, is W4 D3 L6.

• As Romania coach, Lucescu oversaw his country's 1-1 draw with Spain at the 1984 UEFA European Championship finals in France. As Galatasaray coach he guided the Turkish club to a 2-1 victory against Real Madrid CF in the 2000 UEFA Super Cup.

• Chygrynskiy became the first Ukrainian to play for Barcelona when he swapped Shakhtar for the Camp Nou in August 2009. He made 12 Liga appearances and another two in the Copa del Rey before returning to Donetsk the following summer.

• Carlos Vela and Eduardo were team-mates at Arsenal FC from 2008 to 2010. They played together four times during 2009/10, with the Mexican coming on to replace Eduardo on another five occasions.

• Vela appeared as a 59th-minute substitute in Arsenal's 2-1 loss at Shakhtar in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage – a match in which Eduardo scored the winning goal.

• On 17 September 2008, Vela made his UEFA Champions League debut as an 84th-minute substitute in a 1-1 draw at FC Dynamo Kyiv. His first start came in the return fixture which Arsenal won 1-0.

• Haris Seferovic played against Fernando in Switzerland's 1-0 friendly win over Brazil in August.