Plzeň and CSKA play off for third place

FC Viktoria Plzeň host Russian opposition for the first time when PFC CSKA Moskva visit the Štruncovy Sady Stadión with third place in Group D still to be decided.

• A place in the round of 32 of the UEFA Europa League is the target for both teams, although third-placed CSKA hold the upper hand. They lead Plzeň by three points meaning that the Czech champions must win against opponents who beat them 3-2 in St Petersburg in October. Victory by a margin of more than one goal or by a 1-0 or 2-1 scoreline would guarantee Plzeň's progression. If Plzeň win 3-2, CSKA's better goal difference in the group would take them through.

Match background
• Plzeň are looking to prolong their European campaign into the new year for the third season running. Pavel Vrba's men have lost both home games so far in Group D without scoring a goal.

• Prior to their defeats by Manchester City FC (0-3) and FC Bayern München (0-1), Plzeň had won ten of their preceding 11 home fixtures in UEFA competition, including three in a row in this season's qualifying rounds.

• CSKA's away form provides a similar story as before their heavy away defeats at Bayern (0-3) and City (2-5), Leonid Slutski's side were on a run of just two losses in 11 away games in UEFA competition.

• CSKA's presence outside the top two in Group D marks the first time in five attempts that they have failed to qualify from the group stage of a UEFA competition. They had survived the group stage in each of the following campaigns: 2008/09 UEFA Cup, 2009/10 UEFA Champions League, 2010/11 UEFA Europa League, 2011/12 UEFA Champions League.

• CSKA's only previous meeting with Czech opposition prior to this season came when they took four points off AC Sparta Praha en route to winning their group in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League. Seydou Doumbia (72, 86) and Mark González (84pen) scored the goals in a 3-0 home victory on 30 September 2010, while the second leg in Prague finished 1-1 with Alan Dzagoev on target. Plzeň's Lukáš Hejda sat on the Sparta bench in Moscow and played all 90 minutes of the second match.

Team ties
• Matúš Kozáčik appeared for Anorthosis Famagusta against CSKA in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League play-offs. After Marcos Argüello had been sent off, he came on as a substitute with 12 minutes left of the first leg in Moscow and CSKA already 4-0 ahead, and then played the entire second leg when Doumbia and González scored past him in a 2-1 CSKA victory.

• Aleksei Berezutski, Sergei Ignashevich and the two-goal Dzagoev featured in Russia's 4-1 group stage victory over a Czech Republic side including Roman Hubník and substitute Milan Petržela at UEFA EURO 2012.

• Hubník played under CSKA coach Leonid Slutski at FC Moskva in 2007, the first of his two years in Russia where he was a team-mate of Kirill Nababkin and made nine top-flight appearances.

• Marek Bakoš made 22 appearances and scored three goals in the Russian league for FC Shinnik Yaroslavl in 2006.

• Pavel Horváth and substitute David Limberský played in Sparta Praha's 0-0 home draw with FC Spartak Moskva in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage. Horváth was in the Sporting Clube de Portugal team defeated 3-1 in Moscow and 3-0 in Lisbon by Spartak in the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League first group stage.

• Tomáš Wágner scored twice in the Czech Republic's 2-2 draw with Georgi Schennikov's Russia in a 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-off in Yekaterinburg last October. Martin Pospíšil and Stanislav Tecl also featured for the Czechs, who were eliminated 4-2 on aggregate having lost the first leg at home.