First encounter for Dynamo and Sporting

FC Dynamo Kyiv will take on Sporting Clube de Portugal for the first time in Kiev with both sides looking to kick-start their 2007/08 UEFA Champions League campaigns following Matchday 1 defeats by AS Roma and Manchester United FC respectively. Memories of a fraught UEFA European Under-21 Championship semi-final will also loom large in some minds.

• The two sides have never met in European club competition.

• In total, Dynamo have played six competitive games against Portuguese opposition, winning two and losing four. Both of those victories came in home games.

• Dynamo met Sporting's Lisbon neighbours Benfica in the quarter-finals of the 1991/92 European Champion Clubs' Cup, which were contested as two four-team groups as a precursor to the current UEFA Champions League format. Benfica lost 1-0 in Kiev but won the return fixture 5-0 at home.

• Ukrainian and Portuguese club sides have met 14 times in European competition, with the Liga sides currently well on top. Portuguese sides have won nine of those games, drawing two and losing three. In Ukraine itself, Portuguese sides have won three of their seven games, drawing two and losing two.

• Sporting have never come up against opponents from Ukraine while they are also looking for their first away victory in the competition at the tenth attempt.

• Sporting coach Paulo Bento has been to the Ukrainian capital before, coming on as a 64th-minute substitute in a 2-1 defeat in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 5 October 1996. The midfielder then came on as a 75th-minute substitute in the return fixture as Portugal won 1-0.

• The 2007/08 season is Paulo Bento's first as a fully qualified coach for UEFA club competition. Carlos Pereira was officially in charge last season.

• This match will spark some happy and unhappy memories for members of both sides with three Dynamo players having featured for Ukraine in a fraught 2006 UEFA European U21 Championship semi-final win against a Serbia and Montenegro side featuring three Sporting players.

• Taras Mikhalik and Artem Milevskiy of Dynamo were both in the starting lineup for the game in Aveiro on 1 June 2006 along with Sporting goalkeeper Vladimir Stojković and striker Milan Purović, with a third Lions star Simon Vukčević remaining on the bench for all 120 goalless minutes of the tie.

• The game was decided on a shoot-out, with Dynamo's Olexandr Rybka coming on for Andriy Pyatov in order to face the penalties. Both goalkeepers, Rybka and Stojković, saved their opening kicks, but the following four sets were converted, sending the competition into sudden death. Olexandr Maksymov made it 5-4 to Ukraine before Purović missed his effort to send the Yellows, led by former Dynamo star Olexiy Mykhailychenko, to the final, where they lost 3-0 against the Netherlands.

• Sporting finished second in the Liga in 2006/07 to earn an automatic place in the group stage. Winning the Ukrainian title earned Dynamo a place in the third qualifying round, where they beat FK Sarajevo of Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-0 on aggregate to progress.

• Portuguese may be the lingua franca on the field as Dynamo boast five Brazilian stars - Michael, Rodrigo, Carlos Corrêa, Diogo Rincón and Kleber.

• Dynamo's arch-rivals FC Shakhtar Donetsk travel to Lisbon to face Sporting's nemeses Benfica on the day after the game in Kiev.

• Sporting travel to Roma for their next group stage game on Matchday 3. On the same night, 23 October, Dynamo take on Manchester United at home.