Slovenia v Ukraine background

Slovenia will look to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit and frustrate Ukraine for the second time in a UEFA European Championship play-off as their tie concludes in Maribor on Tuesday.

Previous meetings
• Ukraine's victory in Lviv on Saturday was their first in five games against Slovenia. That sequence includes a loss to the Balkan nation in the play-offs for a place at UEFA EURO 2000.

• Andriy Yarmolenko's first-half strike was supplemented when Yevhen Seleznyov finished from close range nine minutes after the interval. 

• This second leg takes place exactly 16 years to the day after a 1-1 draw in Kyiv earned Slovenia that play-off success.

• Then, as now, Srečko Katanec was coach of Slovenia, while his current assistant Aleš Čeh captained the national team in that tie.
 
 Form guide
• England are the only side to win in Slovenia in their last seven competitive home matches (W5 D1 L1).

• Ukraine's away record in qualifying was decent (W3 D1 L1); European champions Spain were the only host team to beat them.

• Ukraine's single previous UEFA European Championship play-off ended in that 3-2 aggregate defeat by Slovenia.

• Ukraine have also missed out in four FIFA World Cup finals play-offs, for the tournaments in 1998 (1-3 agg Croatia), 2002 (2-5 agg Germany), 2010 (0-1 agg Greece) and 2014 (2-3 agg France).

• Ukraine coach Mykhailo Fomenko, speaking of that last tie when Ukraine won 2-0 at home but lost 3-0 in France, said: "Of course it would be better to start away, but we cannot change anything with the draw. We have experience of beating France in a home first leg and we will use that in our preparations this time."

• Slovenia have been involved in two EURO play-offs, winning one and losing one. They overcame Ukraine 3-2 on aggregate to reach their first finals – UEFA EURO 2000 – but succumbed 2-1 to neighbours Croatia to sit out the 2004 event.

• Slovenia also won both of their past World Cup play-offs: they edged past Romania (3-2 agg) to qualify for the 2002 tournament and Russia on away goals (2-2 agg) to get to the 2010 finals.

Disciplinary
• Ukraine's Olexandr Kucher and  Taras Stepanenko served one-game bans in the first leg having collected three bookings during the qualifying group stage.

Trivia and links
• Ukraine finished third in Group C behind European champions Spain and Slovakia. Slovenia recovered from a 1-0 defeat in Estonia in their opening fixture to come third in Group E behind England and Switzerland.

• Ukraine made their EURO finals debut as co-hosts of UEFA EURO 2012. Their biggest achievement at international level was progressing to the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals.

• Slovenia's sole previous EURO finals, UEFA EURO 2000, culminated in a group stage exit.