Bayern seek to turn tables on BATE

FC Bayern München need a matchday six victory to guarantee finishing as Group F winners and will be confident of doing so against FC BATE Borisov, who have lost their way since winning their first two games including a 3-1 defeat of the German giants.

• A 1-1 draw at Valencia CF on matchday five ensured qualification for Jupp Heynckes' team. It left the sides level on ten points but Bayern have the advantage due to a superior head-to-head record.

• The same night BATE succumbed to a third successive defeat as LOSC Lille ran out 2-0 winners in Minsk, although the team who recently won a seventh successive Belarusian title are nevertheless assured of third place.

• The matchday two fixture between the sides was their first competitive meeting and resulted in BATE's first home victory in the group stage. Aleksandr Pavlov and Vitali Rodionov put BATE 2-0 up and, though Franck Ribéry pulled one back, substitute Renan Bressan wrapped up the win.

• Bayern, losing finalists on their own ground last season, had opened the 2012/13 competition with a 2-1 home win against Valencia and also beat LOSC 6-1 in Munich.

• BATE began with a 3-1 win in France, their first UEFA Champions League group stage success at the 13th attempt, but went down 4-2 at Valencia in their other away game.

Match background
• Before the meeting in Minsk, Bayern had never faced opponents from Belarus. BATE met Bayern's city rivals TSV 1860 München in the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup second round, winning 1-0 away – Artem Kontsevoi scoring in the 74th minute having missed a first-half penalty – and 4-0 at home.

• Bayern posted seven straight home victories in last year's competition – including the play-offs but discounting the final loss – and have won 16 of their last 17 European home games. The exception was FC Internazionale Milano's 3-2 win in the 2010/11 round of 16.

• BATE were unbeaten on their travels in qualifying, drawing at FK Vardar and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona FC either side of a 2-0 win away to Debreceni VSC.

• BATE had also remained unbeaten outside Belarus in qualifying for the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League, recording three away wins, and for the 2011/12 edition, with a victory and two draws. They also won the away leg of their UEFA Europa League play-off ties in both 2009/10 and 2010/11.

• In the group stage of all five campaigns in both competitions their away record is: W3 D5 L6.

Team ties
• Aleksandr Hleb faced Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger when Belarus and Germany played out a 2-2 draw in a friendly in Kaiserslautern on 27 May 2008. Belarus introduced Aleksandr Pavlov in the 73rd minute, who provided the assist for Vitali Bulyga's equaliser two minutes from time.

• Hleb was at VfB Stuttgart from 2000 to 2005 and then from 2009 until 2010. In each case he was a team-mate of Mario Gomez and he also played with Lahm, who had a two-year loan spell with Stuttgart from September 2003. Hleb played alongside Mario Mandžukić at VfL Wolfsburg in 2011/12.

• Mandžukić came up against Aleksandr Yurevich, Hleb, Rodionov and Maksim Bordachev when Croatia faced Ukraine in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Mandžukić's Croatia triumphed 3-1 away and then 1-0 at home.

• Rodionov played for SC Freiburg in Germany's second division between January and June 2009, scoring four goals in 12 league appearances.

• Anatoliy Tymoshchuk came up against Yegor Filipenko, Hleb, Pavlov and Yurevich when Ukraine met Belarus in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. Ukraine won 1-0 at home with the game in Minsk ending goalless.

• Ribéry's France drew 1-1 against Bordachev's Belarus in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier in Minsk on 3 June 2011. Ribéry scored in Les Bleus' 3-1 victory against a Belarus side featuring Bordachev, Rodionov, Artem Radkov, Bressan and Denis Polyakov in a FIFA World Cup qualifier on 11 September 2012 in Paris, Aleksandr Gutor an unused substitute.