Home strengths boost Shakhtar for Roma return

FC Shakhtar Donetsk are enjoying a long unbeaten home run in Europe and will be relying on that form to carry them past AS Roma and into the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals for the first time.

• The Ukrainian side are further boosted by their 3-2 first-leg win in Italy, rallying from 1-0 down to take control of the tie thanks to first-half goals from Jadson, Douglas Costa and Luiz Adriano.

• Roma will have a new coach for the second leg after the club's former Italian international striker Vincenzo Montella took the reins following Claudio Ranieri's resignation on 21 February.

Previous meetings
• When the teams met in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League group stage, Shakhtar won 1-0 at home thanks to Ciprian Marica's 61st-minute goal. Roma were 4-0 victors in Italy, Rodrigo Taddei, Francesco Totti, Daniele De Rossi and David Pizarro all scoring in the final 24 minutes.

• The teams for game in Donetsk on 22 November 2006 were:
Shakhtar: Shust, Tymoshchuk, Kucher, Duljaj, Fernandinho (Gai 90), Brandão, Raţ, Chygrynskiy, Marica (Aghahowa 75), Srna, Jadson (Elano 81).
Roma: Doni, Panucci, Mancini (Vučinić 78), Cassetti, Mexès, De Rossi, Perrotta, Ferrari (Pizarro 69), Aquilani (Montella 78), Totti, Taddei.

• That 2006 victory halted Shakhtar's run of five successive home defeats against Italian opponents. They had not managed a goal in the four previous contests, conceding nine.

• Roma faced FC Dynamo Kyiv in the 2004/05 and 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage, losing home and away (2-0) in the first campaign before winning both games three years later, triumphing 4-1 in Ukraine.

Match background
• Mircea Lucescu's Shakhtar won all three home games (1-0 v FK Partizan, 2-1 v Arsenal FC, 2-0 v SC Braga) to finish top of Group H and reach the knockout rounds for the first time at the sixth attempt. It extended their unbeaten home run in European competition, including qualifiers, to 11 games, including eight wins.

• In their away games in Group E, Roma lost 2-0 at FC Bayern München before beating FC Basel 1893 3-2 and drawing 1-1 at CFR 1907 Cluj.

• The 1-0 win against Roma in 2006 is Lucescu's only success in his last seven home games against Italian teams, a sequence that includes five defeats and only one draw, 1-1 at home to Roma in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League second group stage when he was in charge of Galatasaray AŞ. In ten home ties Lucescu's record is W3 D2 L5.

• Shakhtar have gone through in all five of their previous ties in which they have won the first leg away from home, including the 1997/98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round when a 3-2 victory at Boavista FC was followed by a 1-1 draw in Ukraine.

• By contrast Roma have won only one of the four UEFA competition ties in which they lost the first leg at home, recovering from a 2-1 reverse against 1. FC Nürnberg in the 1988/89 UEFA Cup first round with a 3-1 victory in Germany. Most recently, the Giallorossi were beaten 2-0 at home by Manchester United FC in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, subsequently losing 1-0 in England.

• Ominously for the Italian side, only once in the UEFA Champions League era have a side overturned a first-leg home defeat; AFC Ajax lost 1-0 against Panathinaikos FC in the 1995/96 semi-finals only to win 3-0 in Greece.

• Shakhtar's sole shoot-out in UEFA competition was a 4-1 defeat by Club Brugge KV in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

• Roma have won only one of their four shoot-outs in UEFA competition, defeating IFK Norrköping in the 1982/83 UEFA Cup second round. They lost 4-2 to Liverpool FC in the 1984 European Champion Clubs' Cup final in their Stadio Olimpico home and bowed out at this stage of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League to Arsenal FC, going down 7-6 on penalties. Mirko Vučinić was one of two Roma players to fail from the spot.

Team ties
• Lucescu, who had coaching spells in Serie A with AC Pisa 1909, Brescia Calcio, AC Reggiana 1919 and Inter, locked horns with Roma on nine occasions. His record was W3  D3  L3.

• Rãzvan Raţ and Bogdan Lobonţ played together at FC Rapid Bucureşti between 1997 and 2000 and are team-mates with Romania. Lobonţ became Rapid's first-choice goalkeeper after Lucescu took over as head coach in 1997 and was still at the club when Lucescu returned in 1999/2000.

• Eduardo was in the Arsenal team beaten 1-0 at Roma in March 2009 before that 7-6 penalty shoot-out success. His spot kick was saved by Doni, Arsenal's only unsuccessful attempt.

• Adriano scored FC Internazionale Milano's second goal in a 2-0 win at Shakhtar in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round first leg in August 2005. He also played in the 1-1 home draw, David Pizarro appearing as a substitute in both legs.