Old and new on show in Kiev opener

The tournament newcomers from Russia, FC Rubin Kazan, must cross the border into Ukraine on Matchday 1 for an intriguing opening test away against FC Dynamo Kyiv.

Previous meetings
• Although Dynamo were a major force in the Soviet era – winning 13 national championships – Rubin never competed in the top flight during that period so the clubs have never before met.

Match background
• This match could well feature Andriy Shevchenko's first UEFA Champions League outing for Dynamo since 1998/99 when he hit ten goals to fire the Kiev outfit to the semi-finals, where they lost narrowly to FC Bayern München.

• Shevchenko, who won the competition with AC Milan in 2003, has scored 18 goals in 28 games in the UEFA Champions League for Dynamo, qualifiers included.

• Dynamo have not gone beyond the group stage since the season after Shevchenko's departure, 1999/00.

• The Ukrainian team have a 100 per cent record against visitors from Russia in the UEFA Champions League, having earned group-stage wins against FC Spartak Moskva (3-2 in 1994/95) and FC Lokomotiv Moskva (2-0 in 2003/04), and beaten Spartak again in last season's third qualifying round.

• Olexandr Aliyev, Ismaël Bangoura and Artem Milevskiy (2) got the goals that earned Dynamo a 4-1 win against Spartak in August 2008, completing an 8-2 aggregate victory.

• After their UEFA Champions League group-stage elimination last term Dynamo proceeded to reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup before losing to Ukrainian rivals FC Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2 on aggregate. Their record in nine European home matches in 2008/09 was W4 D4 L1.

• Rubin did not compete in any of UEFA's club competitions before 2004. Outside of qualifying rounds and UEFA Intertoto Cup ties, they have played only one away game during the European season proper – a 1-0 defeat at SK Rapid Wien in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup first round.

• Valeri Gazzaev failed three times to get former employers PFC CSKA Moskva out of the group stage, although he did lead them to the UEFA Cup in 2004/05, the first European success for a Russian side.

Team ties
• As coach of CSKA in 2008, Gazzaev's team beat Rubin 4-0 at home and held them 0-0 away – yet still finished runners-up to them in the championship.

• Rubin midfielder Sergei Semak played under Gazzaev at CSKA from 2002 to 2004.

• Former Dynamo favourite Serhiy Rebrov ended his second spell with the Kiev club in 2008 and joined Rubin, helping them claim their first title before retiring this summer and rejoining Dynamo as a coach of the youth and reserve teams.