Anderlecht hope for better against Zenit

RSC Anderlecht continue their search for an elusive UEFA Champions League home win when they take on FC Zenit St Petersburg on matchday four.

• The Belgian champions have work to do having gone down 1-0 in Russia on matchday three, Aleksandr Kerzhakov's late penalty separating the sides. Zenit therefore moved above Anderlecht into third position in Group C with three points, two more than their opponents and one behind second-placed AC Milan.

Past meetings
• Luciano Spalletti's Zenit won 3-1 home and away when the clubs met in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Kerzhakov hit a first-half hat-trick (8, 33, 44) in Brussels on 16 September 2010, with Roland Juhász pulling a goal back (66). The return fixture took place on 1 December and Zenit prevailed through Aleksei Ionov (12), Aleksandr Bukharov (65) and substitute Szabolcs Huszti (88). Kanu (87) scored for Ariël Jacobs' Anderlecht.

• The lineups for that previous encounter in Brussels were:
Anderlecht: Proto, Rnić (Legear 46), Bernárdez, Juhász, Deschacht, Biglia, Polák, Gillet, Boussoufa, Lukaku, Suárez.
Zenit: Zhevnov, Semak, Lombaerts, Alves, Luković, Shirokov (Fayzulin 36), Denisov, Lazović, Zyryanov, Danny (Križanac 90), Kerzakhov (Ionov 79).

• Zenit finished top of the group with six straight wins, while Anderlecht ended second.

Match background
• Beaten 3-0 at home by Málaga CF on matchday two, John van den Brom's Anderlecht are seeking a first UEFA Champions League victory in nine years at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium. They have lost eight and drawn two of ten group stage fixtures in the competition since a 1-0 win against Olympique Lyonnais in November 2003.

• Anderlecht won their most recent home fixture against Russian visitors, beating FC Lokomotiv Moskva 5-3 last December to complete a 100% record in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Sacha Kljestan, Fernando Canesin, Marcin Wasilewski, Matías Suárez and Guillaume Gillet scored.

• Anderlecht's five home encounters with Russian clubs have generated 28 goals at an average of 5.6 per game. Their home record against Russian opposition is W3 D0 L2 F15 A13.

• Zenit's first Group C away assignment ended in a 3-0 defeat at Málaga and they have only ever won once on their travels in the UEFA Champions League – at FC BATE Borisov in both sides' 2008/09 debut campaign.

• Zenit's triumphant 2007/08 UEFA Cup run featured a 4-1 aggregate win against R. Standard de Liège in the first round. Aleksandr Anyukov, Igor Denisov, Nicolas Lombaerts and Konstantin Zyryanov were in a Zenit team that drew the second leg 1-1 in Belgium against a Standard side including Dieudonné Mbokani and Axel Witsel, now a Zenit player.

• Zenit beat Club Brugge KV 2-0 in the 1987/88 UEFA Cup first round, but went down 5-0 in the second leg.

Team ties
• Including Zenit's 2010 victories against Anderlecht, Spalletti has won all nine previous encounters with Belgian clubs in his coaching career. In only his second European tie as a coach, Spalletti's UC Sampdoria team beat KRC Zuid-West-Vlaanderen 4-0 on aggregate in the 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

• With AS Roma, Spalletti oversaw 2-1 home and away victories over Club Brugge in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 32. His Roma side overwhelmed KAA Gent 10-2 on aggregate, winning 7-1 in Belgium, in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round.

• Wasilewski was in the Poland side that drew 1-1 with the Russia of Vyacheslav Malafeev, Anyukov, Denisov, Zyryanov, Roman Shirokov and Kerzhakov in the UEFA EURO 2012 group stage.

• Mbokani and Milan Jovanović won two Belgian championships with Witsel at Standard in 2008 and 2009.

• Lombaerts began his career with Gent and played alongside Gillet in 2006/07. The pair were together in the most recent Belgium national squad along with Witsel.

• Jovanović spent two seasons at FC Lokomotiv Moskva in 2004 and 2005, making just four appearances.

• Hulk's only hat-trick in European competition came in FC Porto's 4-2 home win against KRC Genk in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League play-offs.