Wolfsburg v Napoli background

VfL Wolfsburg will look to spoil Rafael Benítez's 55th birthday celebrations as the least experienced side in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals welcome former UEFA Cup winners SSC Napoli.

Previous meetings
• Wolfsburg and Napoli have never met in a competitive fixture.

• Wolfsburg accounted for FC Internazionale Milano 5-2 on aggregate in the round of 16. Their only other encounter with Italian opposition in a major UEFA competition came in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage when they twice came from behind to draw 2-2 at AC Milan, although they also lost 3-0 on aggregate to AC Perugia in a 2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup final.

• Napoli's record in 16 encounters with German sides is W4 D4 L8 (W0 D3 L5 in Germany, including defeats in their four most recent visits).
 
Form guide
• Wolfsburg have won their last two European home games by two goals, but have been a little inconsistent at home in this season's UEFA Europa League (W3 D1 L1).

• Napoli have not conceded in their last three European away games (W1 D2).

• Wolfsburg have reached this stage for the first time since they were eliminated from the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League in the quarter-finals by Fulham FC.

• Napoli have not reached the quarter-finals of a major UEFA tournament since they won the UEFA Cup in 1988/89, beating VfB Stuttgart over two legs in the final.

• This season's UEFA Europa League records:
Wolfsburg – W6 D2 L2 F21 A12
Napoli – W7 D2 L1 F19 A4
 
Trivia and links
• Napoli are one of three former UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League winners left in the competition, along with holders Sevilla FC (2006, 2007, 2014) and FC Zenit (2008). A Napoli side led by Diego Maradona triumphed in 1989 after beating German opponents in the shape of VfB Stuttgart 5-4 on aggregate in the final (2-1 h, 3-3 a).

• Wolfsburg are the least experienced side left in this season's UEFA Europa League – they have played only 60 games in UEFA competition.

• Of the sides that started out in the group stage, Napoli have conceded the fewest goals in their ten games: just four, an average of 0.4 per game – or one every 225 minutes. Napoli have also had the most shots on (77) and off target (67) in this season's competition, and have hit the post eight times.

• With eight-goal top scorers Alan (FC Salzburg) and Romelu Lukaku (Everton FC) both eliminated, the top marksmen left in the competition are Napoli's Gonzalo Higuaín and Club Brugge KV's Lior Refaelov, with six goals each.

• Napoli left-back Faouzi Ghoulam and Wolfsburg midfielder Josuha Guilavogui were team-mates at AS Saint-Étienne from 2010–13.

• Defender Henrique (Bayer 04 Leverkusen, 2008–09) is the only Napoli player with Bundesliga experience.

• Napoli's José Callejon and FC Dynamo Kyiv's Andriy Yarmolenko have both hit the post three times in this season's competition.

• Wolfsburg winger Maximilian Arnold could potentially celebrate his 21st birthday at the UEFA Europa League final. He is the only player left in the competition who was born on 27 May.

• Wolfsburg teenager Oskar Zawada – who has yet to play in this season's competition – is one of three Polish players who could potentially feature in the UEFA Europa League final in Warsaw, along with Łukasz Teodorczyk (FC Dynamo Kyiv) and Grzegorz Krychowiak (Sevilla FC).
 
 The coaches
• At one stage a lower-league midfielder and trainee policeman, Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking is back in Europe for the first time since steering second-tier TSV Alemannia Aachen into the 2004/05 UEFA Cup group phase. More recently, he has coached Hannover 96 and 1. FC Nürnberg, taking up his current post in December 2012.

• Napoli coach since May 2013, Rafael Benítez won two Spanish titles and the 2003/04 UEFA Cup with Valencia CF, the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League with Liverpool FC and the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League with Chelsea FC. The Spaniard lifted the Coppa Italia in his first Napoli campaign. Benítez could match Giovanni Trapattoni in becoming only the second coach to win the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League for a third time.

• Benítez (Chelsea, 2013) 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 Zenit's André Villas-Boas (FC Porto, 2011) and Sevilla's Unai Emery (Sevilla, 2014). Benitez is the only coach in the last 32 to have won the UEFA Champions League.

• Benítez turns 55 on the day of the first leg against Wolfsburg. This is the first time he has been involved in a UEFA game on his birthday.