Sevilla seek to overhaul Braga

Sevilla FC have never lost at home to Portuguese opposition and they will look to keep that record intact when SC Braga visit in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off tie.

• Antonio Álvarez's Sevilla are chasing a third group-stage participation in four years against their Portuguese visitors, who have never played UEFA Champions League football before.

• To reach the group stage again the Spanish side will have to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit, Braga's Matheus heading the only goal of the first leg after 62 minutes.

Previous meetings
• The clubs have met at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán once before, with Sevilla emerging 2-0 winners in the UEFA Cup group stage in 2006/07 thanks to goals from Luis Fabiano (40) and Ernesto Chevantón (76).

• Neither of the coaches involved – Juande Ramos for Sevilla and Rogério Gonçalves for Braga – remains at their respective clubs. The full lineups for that match on 23 November 2006 were:
Sevilla: Palop, Dani Alves, Navarro, Escudé, Escudero, Adriano (Alfaro 77), Poulsen, Renato, Puerta, Luis Fabiano (Chevantón 66), Kanouté (Kepa Blanco 78).
Braga: Paulo Santos; Luís Filipe, Paulo Jorge, Nem (Castanheira 70), Carlos Fernandes (João Pinto 82), Frechaut, Vandinho, Ricardo Chaves, Maciel, Zé Carlos (Wender 70), Cesinha.

Match background
• Sevilla have played in Europe's elite club competition three times previously. They were quarter-finalists in 1957/58 and contested the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2007/08, eventually losing to Fenerbahçe SK in the last 16, and again last season when they again reached the first knockout round before succumbing to PFC CSKA Moskva.

• The Andalusian club first met Portuguese opposition in the preliminary round of the European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1957/58 – ousting SL Benfica 3-1 on aggregate thanks to a first-leg home victory by that same scoreline.

• Since then they have faced two other two-legged ties against clubs from over the border. They lost 4-3 on aggregate to Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup first round – after a 3-2 second-leg reverse in Lisbon – but overcame CF Nacional at the same stage of the UEFA Cup in 2004/05 thanks to a 2-1 home win and 2-0 victory in Madeira.

• Sevilla also beat Vitória SC 3-1 at home in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage.

• After securing second place in Portugal last term – their highest ever position – Braga beat Celtic FC to reach the play-off round, winning 3-0 at home before a 2-1 defeat in Glasgow.

• Braga are hoping to avoid their fate in last season's UEFA Europa League where they missed out on the group stage after defeat by Sweden's IF Elfsborg in the third qualifying round.

Team ties
• As a player, Braga coach Domingos Paciência spent two seasons in Spanish football with CD Tenerife from 1997-99 and also played against Spain for his country in a 2-2 draw in January 1994.

• Jesús Navas was an unused substitute in Spain's last-16 victory against Portugal at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

• Sevilla's Brazilian international Luis Fabiano played against Portugal in the countries' goalless draw in the World Cup group stage.

• Spaniard Fernando Castro Santos coached both Braga and Sevilla. After leaving Braga during the 1997/98 campaign, he went on to replace Julián Rubio at Sevilla, then in the Spanish second division, but failed to win promotion. He had a second spell with Braga in 2002/03.