Barcelona pose biggest threat yet to Plzeň home rule

FC Viktoria Plzeň's four-match unbeaten home run in this season's UEFA Champions League receives the ultimate test when they welcome title holders FC Barcelona.

• Barcelona beat Plzeň 2-0 at the Camp Nou on matchday three and with another victory will secure qualification so long as FC BATE Borisov fail to beat AC Milan in the other Group H fixture. Bottom-placed Plzeň's hopes of progress are already faint and their elimination will be confirmed if they fail to at least match Milan's result in Belarus.

Match background
• Pavel Vrba's Plzeň have played four home games so far in this first UEFA Champions League adventure – beating FC Pyunik (5-1), Rosenborg BK (3-2) and FC København (2-1) in qualifying before drawing 1-1 with BATE on matchday one.

• Prior to this season Plzeň had only played two European home games in their history, against FC Bayern München (0-1) in the 1971/72 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round and Beşiktaş JK (1-1) in last season's UEFA Europa League third qualifying round.

• Those two fixtures, together with the ties against Pyunik and Rosenborg, were played at Plzeň's Stadion města Plzně. Prague's Eden Stadium has been their base from the play-offs onwards but at both venues, the club have failed to keep a clean sheet in Europe.

• Ominously, Barcelona won 5-0 at BATE in their first game on the road in this season's UEFA Champions League. It was the third in a row in the competition for a team who have lost just one of their last seven European away fixtures.

• Josep Guardiola was playing when Barcelona last faced Czech opposition in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League second group stage. He scored the third goal in a 5-0 defeat of AC Sparta Praha at the Camp Nou, and also appeared in Barcelona's 2-1 victory in Prague. He had suffered defeat on Czech soil when Barcelona lost 1-0 at Sparta in the group stage of the 1991/92 European Champion Clubs' Cup, although they won 3-2 at home.

• Barcelona's away record against Czech sides is W2 D1 L2. Their overall record reads W7 D1 L3.

Team ties
• Pavel Horváth is still seeking a first win against Spanish opposition; he was in the SK Slavia Praha side beaten 1-0 on aggregate by Valencia CF in the 1996/97 UEFA Cup second round and faced Real Madrid CF with Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League first group stage, earning a 2-2 home draw.

• David Villa became Spain's all-time leading scorer after striking twice in the 2-1 home win against the Czech Republic in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying last March. Gerard Piqué, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Sergio Busquets also featured in the triumph in Granada.

• Xavi, Busquets and Piqué started the return fixture on 7 October, while Villa and Carles Puyol came on in Spain's 2-0 victory. Daniel Kolář and Petr Jiráček started for the Czechs with Milan Petržela an unused substitute.

• Villa made his UEFA club competition debut for Real Zaragoza in a two-legged victory against SK Sigma Olomouc in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup first round. He appeared as a 62nd-minute substitute against Slavia for Valencia CF in the UEFA Europa League on 22 October 2009, but was sent off 23 minutes later.

• Daniel Alves helped Sevilla FC beat Slavia home and away in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage, scoring in a 3-0 win in the Czech capital. Seydou Keita and Adriano featured alongside him in the 4-2 home success.

• Cesc Fàbregas scored twice as his Arsenal FC side defeated Slavia 7-0 at home in the same group on 23 October 2007. Fàbregas had already found the net in both legs of Arsenal's third qualifying round win against Sparta that season.

• Ibrahim Afellay played for PSV Eindhoven in a 1-0 home victory against Sparta in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League.

• Sergi Gómez and Gerard Deulofeu helped Spain beat a Czech Republic side including Plzeň's Martin Sladký 3-2 after extra time in the 2011 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final in Romania.