Malmö and Shakhtar chasing first points

Both Malmö FF and FC Shakhtar Donetsk lost their opening two fixtures and the desire for three points makes for an intriguing first European meeting.

Match background

Malmö
• The Swedish champions are competing in the UEFA Champions League group stage for a second successive season, having made their debut in 2014/15.

• They lost both opening fixtures 2-0, away to Paris Saint-Germain and at home to Real Madrid CF.

• The Himmelsblått beat Celtic FC 2-0 at home in the play-off second leg to advance 4-3 on aggregate. They also lost the away leg in the third qualifying round against FC Salzburg but a 3-0 home win took them through 3-2 on aggregate. In the second qualifying round a 1-0 win at FK Žalgiris Vilnius was enough for them to advance after a goalless home leg.

• Malmö, European Cup runners-up in 1979, have finished bottom of their section on both of the two previous occasions they reached a UEFA competition group stage.

• In last season's Group A they were defending an unbeaten eight-game home sequence in UEFA competition until matchday four, when they lost 2-0 against Club Atlético de Madrid. They also went down by the same score at home to Juventus and have lost their last six UEFA Champions League group matches.

• In the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage Malmö lost 4-1 at home to FC Metalist Kharkiv and 3-1 away. That first result matched their worst ever European home defeat, a 4-1 UEFA Cup loss against Beşiktaş JK on 29 September 2005.

• Malmö took on FC Dynamo Kyiv in the second round of the 1978/79 European Champion Clubs' Cup. The first leg, a 0-0 draw, was staged in Kharkiv as Dynamo's home stadium was being rebuilt to host the 1980 Olympics. Malmö won the home decider 2-0 and reached the final that season, losing 1-0 against Nottingham Forest FC.

Shakhtar
• The Ukrainian Premier League runners-up, who are in their 11th group stage campaign, lost 4-0 at Real Madrid and 3-0 at home to Paris.

• They beat Fenerbahçe SK 3-0 at home in the third qualifying round to progress with the same aggregate score and in the play-offs they followed a 1-0 win at SK Rapid Wien with a 2-2 home draw.

• Shakhtar's best UEFA Champions League performance came in 2010/11, when they reached the quarter-finals.

• Last season they began with a 0-0 draw at Athletic Club before a 7-0 win at FC BATE Borisov and a draw at FC Porto to finish second in Group H. In the round of 16 they lost 7-0 at FC Bayern München after a goalless home draw.

Coach and player links
• Darijo Srna was the match winner for Croatia against Sweden in both qualifiers for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He scored in 1-0 wins in Gothenburg on 8 September 2004 and in Zagreb on 8 October 2005, where Markus Rosenberg was part of Sweden's squad but did not play.

• Rosenberg did feature for SV Werder Bremen in the 2009 UEFA Cup final against Shakhtar, who included Andriy Pyatov, Olexandr Kucher and Srna. Shakhtar won 2–1.

• Jo Inge Berget scored the first goal in Norway's 2–0 win over Srna's Croatia in a UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier in Oslo on 6 September 2015.

Match facts

Malmö
• Yoshimar Yotún is banned as a result of his red card on matchday two.

• Malmö have lost five of their 28 Allsvenskan fixtures in 2015 – one more defeat than they suffered last term, when they won the title.

• Malmö's matchday two reverse is their only loss in their last 13 home games (W8 D4 L1).

• The Sky Blues' former coach Bob Houghton – who guided Malmö to the 1979 European Cup final, where they lost to Nottingham Forest FC – will be presented to the fans at half-time on matchday three.

Shakhtar
• Taras Stepanenko is available having been suspended on matchday two.

• The Pitmen have won their last eight domestic fixtures.

• Alex Teixeira is one goal shy of the Ukrainian Premier League-leading tally of 17 he managed last term. He has scored two goals in a match on seven occasions in 2015/16, most recently in Friday's 3-0 win at FC Dynamo Kyiv.

• Five Shakhtar players – Kucher, Stepanenko, Yaroslav Rakitskiy, Vyacheslav Shevchuk and Pyatov – started Ukraine's 1-0 loss to holders Spain in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying on 12 October. Pyatov saved a penalty from Cesc Fàbregas.