D-Day for Dynamo as they seek Maccabi success

FC Dynamo Kyiv put themelves firmly in the frame for a qualifying place in Group G with a win at FC Porto on matchday five; now they have to beat Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC to clinch their ticket to the last 16 for the first time in 16 years.

• In the reverse fixture the Ukrainian side secured a first away group victory in seven years when Andriy Yarmolenko and Júnior Moraes scored in a 2-0 success. The Israeli club have lost all five games and their European adventure ends for the season with this fixture.

• Anything less than a win and Dynamo – who most recently reached the last 16 in 1999/2000, when they made it as far as the second group stage – will finish third and transfer to the UEFA Europa League. If they win and the game between Chelsea FC and Porto is drawn, Dynamo win the group.

Previous meetings
• The sides previously met in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage. It finished 1-1 in Tel Aviv and 3-3 in Ukraine.

• Oleh Gusev scored twice in the Ukraine encounter while Yevhen Khacheridi was one of two Dynamo players sent off.

• The lineups in Kyiv on 14 December 2011 were :
Maccabi: Haimov, Saban (Cohen 87), Logasi (Dabbur 60), Alberman, Nivaldo, Mikha (Zizov 70), Yeini, Atar, Kehat, Konaté, Vered.
Dynamo: Koval, Danilo Silva, Betão, Khacheridi, Ninković (Corrêa 68), Aliyev, Gusev, Yarmolenko (Haruna 85), Brown (Milevskiy 66), Garmash, Almeida.

• Ideye Brown put Yuri Semin's men ahead in the first game. Dor Mikha, one of three of the Maccabi team still at the club, equalised for Elfasi Jack's charges before half-time.

Match background

Dynamo
• Dynamo began with a 2-2 draw at home to Porto. In the double header against Chelsea they drew 0-0 at home and lost 2-1 away.

• The 2-0 win in Portugal on matchday five put them on eight points, two behind Chelsea and Porto.

• Dynamo have lost just one of their last 11 home European games, recording seven wins.

• The Ukrainian double winners are involved in their 15th group stage campaign. In 2012/13 they finished third in Group A, eight points behind runners-up Porto, and took four points from their three home matches.

• In 2009/10, when they finished bottom of the group, Dynamo won one and lost two of their home games and have tasted success only three times in their last 17 UEFA Champions League home group fixtures. Home and away, their record is six wins in their last 34 group stage games.

Maccabi
• The Israeli double winners began with a 4-0 defeat at Chelsea before the Dynamo defeat. In the home-and-away encounters with Porto they lost 2-0 away and 3-1 at home, another 4-0 loss to Chelsea on matchday five confirming their fourth-place finish.

• Eran Zahavi scored seven goals in qualifying, in which Maccabi won one, drew one and lost one of their three away games.

• The last time Maccabi were in this elite company, in 2004/05, they had the misfortune of sharing a group with three former winners: FC Bayern München, Juventus and AFC Ajax. Maccabi finished fourth.

Coach and player links 
• Gusev and Andriy Yarmolenko scored in Ukraine's 3-2 victory over an Israel team who included Yuval Shpungin, Zahavi and Tal Ben Haim in a friendly in Petach-Tikva on 29 February 2012. Khacheridi, Olexandr Shovkovskiy and Denys Garmash were also involved for the visitors.

• Eden Ben Basat scored for an Israel XI including Ben Haim and Shpungin in a 3-3 draw against Miguel Veloso's Portugal in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Tel Aviv. 

• Ben Basat also scored for an Israel side including Ben Haim and Zahavi in a 1-1 draw against Portugal in the return qualifier on 11 October 2013. 

Match facts

Dynamo
• Antunes and Vitaliy Buyalskiy are both a booking away from a ban.

• A 6-0 win at bottom side FC Metalist Zaporizhya on 4 December – their biggest victory of the campaign – means Dynamo have recorded five successive wins since losing to Chelsea on matchday four.

• That victory means Dynamo go into the winter break in Ukraine level on 43 points with FC Shakhtar Donetsk at the top of the table.

• FC Chornomorets Odesa's 86th-minute consolation in their 2-1 loss on 29 November is the only goal Dynamo have conceded in five games.

• Dynamo have kept a clean sheet in 18 of their 25 fixtures this season.

Maccabi
• Ben Haim is suspended following his red card on matchday five; Tal Ben Chaim is a booking away from a ban.

• Maccabi have won seven of their last nine Liga HaAl encounters, but drew 0-0 at Hapoel Kfar-Saba FC on 5 December.

• After only scoring once in September – for Israel in a UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier against Andorra – Zahavi has since managed ten goals in 13 outings for club and country.