Benfica to be tested by Shakhtar

FC Shakhtar Donetsk coach Mircea Lucescu will meet his SL Benfica counterpart José Antonio Camacho again as the two sides duel in UEFA Champions League Group D.

• The Spaniard will be hoping to guide his Portuguese side to their first points in this year's edition after a 2-1 defeat by AC Milan on Matchday 1 while Shakhtar's Romanian coach will want more of the same following the Ukrainian's side's 2-0 home victory over Celtic FC on the same night.

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

• Benfica have met Ukrainian opposition on four previous occasions, winning three games and losing one. They have won both of their home games against sides from the former Soviet Republic without conceding a goal.

• Benfica met Shakhtar's Ukrainian arch-rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv 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.

• Shakhtar have played four games against Portuguese sides, winning one, drawing two and losing one. They have won one game and lost another in their two matches in Portugal to date.

• 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 Portugal itself, Ukrainian sides have lost six of their seven games, winning just one. However, that victory came courtesy of Shakhtar who beat Boavista FC 3-2 in the first round of the 1997/98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

• During his long coaching career, Lucescu has only come up against Portuguese opposition twice. His Romania side lost 1-0 against Portugal at the 1984 UEFA European Championship finals - a defeat that was partially avenged with a 3-2 friendly win in January 1985.

• Lucescu and Camacho have met in three games over the years. They first met as players in the 1975/76 European Champion Clubs' Cup, with former defender Camacho's Real Madrid CF side beating former striker Lucescu's CS Dinamo Bucuresti side 4-1 at home before losing 1-0 in the second leg.

• Lucescu was a coach by the time the two met again, with his Romania side earning their only point at the finals of the 1984 UEFA European Championship with a 1-1 draw against Spain. Camacho, still a player, would go on to reach the final, losing 2-0 to hosts France.

• Benfica defender Luís Filipe was briefly a team-mate of Shakhtar's Serbian striker Zvonimir Vukić in Spain. The two players represented Club Atlético de Madrid's reserve team in the 1999/00 season before moving on.

• Benfica finished third in last season's Liga to earn a place in the third qualifying round, where they beat FC København over two legs to reach the group stage. Second place in Ukraine earned Shakhtar a place in the second qualifying round. They beat FC Pyunik and FC Salzburg to reach the group stage.

• Shakhtar visit Milan on Matchday 3 while on the same evening, 24 October, Benfica are at home against Celtic.