Shakhtar lock horns again with Partizan

Of the four teams returning to the UEFA Champions League for their second participation, none has had to wait longer than FK Partizan who were last in the group stage in 2003/04. Their first fixture in Group H takes them to Ukraine to face FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

Previous meetings
• This is a quick reunion for these teams who faced each other last season in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Shakhtar won 4-1 in Ukraine with a Marko Lomić own goal setting them on their way and Luiz Adriano, Jadson and Yaroslav Rakitskiy also on the scoresheet. Adem Ljajić scored Partizan's reply.

• The teams for that game on 1 October 2009 were:
Shakhtar: Pyatov, Hübschman (Duljaj 72), Raţ, Kucher (Ischenko 72), Rakitskiy, Srna (Kobin 75), Jadson, Fernandinho, Willian, Ilsinho, Luiz Adriano.
Partizan: Radosavljević, Krstajić, Gavrančić, Djordjević, Stevanović, Almani Moreira, Lomić (Tomić 69), Fejsa, Petrović (Ljajić 46), Ilić (Cléo 57), Diarra.

• In the return, Partizan obtained a measure of revenge with a 1-0 win secured by Lamine Diarra's early strike.

• Those matches were the only occasions Shakhtar have faced a team from Serbia in UEFA competition. Partizan played FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup round of 32 and FC Dynamo Kyiv in a 1976/77 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round tie. They won 1-0 in Dnipropetrovsk for a 3-2 overall victory and lost 3-0 in Kyiv on the way to a 5-0 aggregate defeat.

Match background
• This is Shakhtar's sixth UEFA Champions League participation and they are aiming to advance from the group stage for the first time. They will be hoping to start with a victory, just as they did in 2007/08 and again the following year when they beat Celtic FC 2-0 and FC Basel 1893 2-1 respectively.

• In the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League, Shakhtar lost at home to FC Barcelona (1-2) and Sporting Clube de Portugal (0-1) before beating Basel 5-0. Finishing third in the group, they then switched to the UEFA Cup and won all four home games, conceding just a single goal, en route to the Istanbul final where they lifted their first European trophy with a 2-1 extra-time defeat of SV Werder Bremen.

• Last season they were ousted on away goals by FC Timişoara in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, moving into the UEFA Europa League where they lost to Fulham FC in the round of 32. Partizan finished bottom of Group J.

• This time round Partizan eased past FC Pyunik 4-1 in the second qualifying round, winning 1-0 away, and next faced HJK Helsinki, a 2-1 away win cementing a 5-1 overall success. In the play-off round they eventually came through a thrilling tie with RSC Anderlecht, surviving the concession of a two-goal lead – Brazilian striker Cléo scoring both to add to his first-leg strike in a 2-2 draw – in the decider in Belgium for another 2-2 draw. Partizan won the penalty shoot-out 3-2.

Team ties
• Mladen Krstajić was part of the FC Schalke 04 team defeated 2-1 on aggregate by Shakhtar in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup round of 32. He played in both the 1-1 draw in Ukraine and the 1-0 reverse at home.

• As coach of FC Dinamo Bucureşti, Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu got the better of Partizan in the 1989/90 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final, the Romanian team winning 2-1 at home and 2-0 away.