Omens favour Fenerbahçe

Fenerbahçe SK beat all-comers at home on the path to last season's UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and they will look to continue their impressive record in Istanbul when Group G rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv visit on Matchday 2.

• After falling to an opening-day defeat at FC Porto, Fenerbahçe coach Luis Aragonés will hope the return to 'Fortress Sükrü Saraçoglu' will bring the best out of his players as they take on opponents without a win in their last 14 UEFA Champions League group stage outings.

• Fenerbahçe fell behind early on against Porto on Matchday 1, conceding goals to Lisandro (10) and Lucho (13), and although Daniel Güiza (29) halved the deficit, a Lino strike in added time ended hopes of a comeback.

• On the same night Dynamo were left to rue William Gallas's 88th-minute equaliser for Arsenal FC in their 1-1 home draw with the English side. Ismaël Bangoura had earlier put Yuri Semin's team in front with a 64th-minute spot-kick but their failure to hang on means they are still awaiting a first victory in the UEFA Champions League proper since November 2004.

• Recent history does not augur well for the visitors when their poor recent away record in the UEFA Champions League is considered. Although they enjoyed a handsome 4-1 success at FC Spartak Moskva in the third qualifying round, their last eight group stage fixtures on the road have yielded one draw and seven defeats, with two goals scored and 18 conceded.

• Fenerbahçe, for their part, have an impressive 14-match unbeaten home record in UEFA club competitions (including qualifying) stretching back to November 2005 and a 4-0 loss to AC Milan.

• Since the start of the 2007/08 campaign they have registered eight successive victories at the Sükrü Saraçoglu Stadium, qualifying ties included.

• In last season's UEFA Champions League they got the better of RSC Anderlecht (1-0), FC Internazionale Milano (1-0), PSV Eindhoven (2-0), PFC CSKA Moskva (3-1), Sevilla FC (3-2) and Chelsea FC (2-1).

• Aragonés' men have added to the list of wins this term with qualifying victories against MTK Budapest (2-0) and FK Partizan (2-1) this term.

• A Fenerbahçe victory would avenge their defeat by Dynamo in the 2006/07 third qualifying round, when the Ukrainian team prevailed 5-3 on aggregate.

• Goals from Diogo Rincón (1, 67) and Ayila Yussuf (83) earned Dynamo a 3-1 first-leg win in Kiev, where Mehmet Aurélio (48) found the net for a visiting team reduced to ten men by Serkan Balcı's 75th-minute dismissal.

• The full lineups for that match on 9 August 2006 were:
Dynamo: Olexandr Shovkovskiy, Marjan Marković, Goran Sabljić, Rodrigo, Badr El Kaddouri, Ayila Yussuf, Carlos Corrêa, Oleh Gusev (Valentin Belkevich), Diogo Rincón, Serhiy Rebrov (Artem Milevskiy), Maksim Shatskikh.
Fenerbahçe: Rüştü Reçber, Serkan Balcı, Önder Turacı, Can Arat (Servet Çetin), Ümit Özat, Mehmet Aurélio, Stephen Appiah, Tümer Metin (Uğur Boral), Alex, Nicolas Anelka (Semih Şentürk), Tuncay Şanlı.

• Dynamo led twice in the return leg on 26 August, Maksim Shatskikh scoring twice (5, 42) and although Stephen Appiah (36) and Kerim Zengin (57) drew the hosts level both times, the 2-2 draw on the night confirmed Fenerbahçe's elimination.

• The full lineups for the second leg were:
Fenerbahçe: Rüştü Reçber, Kerim Zengin, Önder Turacı (Mehmet Yozgatlı), Can Arat, Ümit Özat, Mehmet Aurélio, Stephen Appiah, Tümer Metin (Uğur Boral), Alex, Semih Şentürk (Murat Hacıoğlu), Tuncay Şanlı.
Dynamo: Olexandr Shovkovskiy, Marjan Marković, Goran Sabljić, Rodrigo, Badr El Kaddouri, Ayila Yussuf, Carlos Corrêa, Oleh Gusev (Goran Gavrančić), Serhiy Rebrov, Ruslan Rotan (Maris Verpakovskis), Maksim Shatskikh.

• While that was Fenerbahçe's only encounter to date with Ukrainian opposition, Dynamo have considerable experience of facing teams from Turkey. They have a good record too with three wins, two draws and only one defeat from six previous visits to the country.

• Fenerbahçe coach Aragonés has had mixed fortunes against Ukrainian sides in the past. His Club Atlético de Madrid team went down 3-0 to Dynamo in the 1985/86 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final but he did oversee a 4-0 triumph for Spain against Ukraine at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The opposition team that day included the Dynamo trio of Shovkovskiy, Andriy Nesmachniy and Gusev.

• Arsenal will take on Porto in the other Group G fixture on Matchday 2.