PSV v Zenit background
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Article summary
PSV Eindhoven and FC Zenit go head-to-head in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 with both sides looking to get their hands on the trophy for a second time.
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Article body
PSV Eindhoven will look to end FC Zenit's 100% record in UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League round of 32 ties as the two former winners meet in the Netherlands.
Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition.
• PSV have already faced Russian opponents this season, losing 1-0 home and away against FC Dinamo Moskva. The Dutch team had won their previous two meetings with Russian sides in Eindhoven.
• Zenit lost 3-2 on aggregate to FC Twente in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League round of 16 in their only previous two-legged tie against Dutch opponents, falling just short of overturning a 3-0 first-leg defeat.
Form guide
• Zenit are in the round of 32 for the sixth time since the advent of the UEFA Cup group stage in 2004/05; they have thus far advanced to the last 16 each time.
• No side has scored more than once in PSV's last six European home games, which have produced three 1-0 home wins, two 1-0 away wins and a 1-1 draw.
• Zenit have gone 17 games (W7 L10) without an away draw in Europe since a 0-0 at FC Porto in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League group stage.
Trivia and links
• Zenit's Javi García and PSV's Karim Rekik were team-mates at Manchester City FC; both players came on as substitutes in a 1-0 Premier League win against Reading FC – Rekik's only league appearance for the club.
• PSV are one of five sides to have made it from the third qualifying round to the round of 32 along with BSC Young Boys, Club Brugge KV, FC Dinamo Moskva and Torino FC.
• PSV (1978) and Zenit (2008) are among 11 former UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League winners in the round of 32. Only one other tie features two past competition victors: VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach (1974, 1979) and holders Sevilla FC (2006, 2007, 2014).
The coaches
• Having led PSV to Dutch Cup glory as caretaker coach in 2012, former midfielder Phillip Cocu took permanent command in 2013 after learning the ropes in a number of roles at the club. As a player, he collected 101 caps for the Netherlands and won four titles in two spells at PSV, as well as the 1998/99 Spanish crown with FC Barcelona, his club from 1998 to 2004.
• Having joined FC Porto's coaching department in his teens after a debate with the club's then coach Sir Bobby Robson, Zenit's André Villas-Boas assisted José Mourinho and spent a season in charge at A. Académica de Coimbra before winning a Liga, Portuguese Cup and UEFA Europa League treble with Porto in 2010/11. He then coached Chelsea FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC, taking command at Zenit in March 2014.
• Villas-Boas (Porto 2011) is one of three coaches involved in the round of 32 who have won the UEFA Europa League since the competition took on its current incarnation, along with SSC Napoli's Rafael Benítez (Chelsea 2013) and Sevilla's Unai Emery (Sevilla 2014).
