Dynamo Kyiv vs Barcelona: UEFA Champions League background, form guide, previous meetings

Dynamo Kyiv are running out of time in Group G as they welcome to the Ukrainian capital a Barcelona side closing in on the UEFA Champions League knockout stages once again.

• The Ukrainian side have one point after their first three matches and went down 2-1 at the Camp Nou on Matchday 3, a Lionel Messi penalty – his third goal in as many group games – and Gerard Piqué's 65th-minute goal securing the points despite Viktor Tsygankov pulling a goal back for Dynamo 15 minutes from time.

• That made it three wins from three in this season's competition for Barcelona, who are three points clear of second-placed Juventus with Dynamo and Ferencváros on one point apiece.

Previous meetings

• The teams have met in 11 previous matches, the last five in the UEFA Champions League group stage. In the most recent meetings before this season, Barcelona won 2-0 at home and 2-1 in Kyiv in 2009/10, Messi scoring in both matches.

• Dynamo have won three of those 11 contests overall, most memorably in the 1997/98 UEFA Champions League when a 3-0 home win in Kyiv was followed by a stunning 4-0 success at the Camp Nou in which Andriy Shevchenko scored a hat-trick.

• Barcelona also got the better of Dynamo in the the 1991/92 group stage, winning 2-0 away and 3-0 at home in a season which culminated in the club's first European Cup triumph. They have also won both two-legged knockout contests between the clubs – in the 1990/91 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals (4-3 aggregate) and the 1993/94 UEFA Champions League first round, when Barça turned round a 3-1 first-leg loss in Kyiv with a 4-1 victory at the Camp Nou, current coach Ronald Koeman scoring the decisive goal.

Form guide
Dynamo
• The Kyiv club lost 2-0 at home to Juve on Matchday 1 before a 2-2 draw at Ferencváros, a game in which they had led 2-0, and defeat in Barcelona.

• Dynamo finished as Ukrainian Premier League runners-up behind Shakhtar Donetsk for the fourth season running in 2019/20, although they did claim a 21st domestic cup, defeating Vorskla Poltava 8-7 on penalties in the final after a 1-1 draw.

• In Europe, Bilo-Syni lost to Club Brugge 4-3 on aggregate in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round before moving into the UEFA Europa League group stage, where they were eliminated after finishing third in their section behind Malmö and Copenhagen.

• Dynamo kicked off their 2020/21 European campaign with a 2-0 home win against AZ Alkmaar in their one-off third qualifying round tie. They then eased past Gent in the two-legged play-offs (2-1 a, 3-0 h), Carlos De Pena scoring in each game.

• Dynamo's most successful UEFA Champions League campaign came in 1998/99 when they made it as far as the semi-finals. Twelve of their subsequent 13 appearances in the competition proper have ended in the group stage, including the most recent in 2016/17 when they finished bottom of their section.

• The Kyiv side had gone out in the UEFA Champions League qualifying phase three seasons running before 2020/21.

• Defeat by Juventus on Matchday 1 ended Dynamo's six-game unbeaten home run in Europe (W3 D3).

• Dynamo's last home game against a Spanish club was a 2-0 loss to Valencia in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League round of 32 first leg (0-2 aggregate), a match that was played in neutral Nicosia. Matchday 3 stretched their winless run against Liga clubs, home and away, to 15 matches (D7 L8).

• Dynamo's last win against Spanish opposition was a 2-0 triumph over Real Madrid in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg (3-1 aggregate). Their home record since then is D4 L3.

Barcelona
• Koeman's side have beaten Ferencváros 5-1, Juve 2-0 and Dynamo in this season's group stage, Messi converting a penalty in all three games.

• Second in the Spanish Liga behind Real Madrid last season, this is Barcelona's 25th UEFA Champions League campaign, a competition record they share with Madrid. They have reached the round of 16 or better for the last 16 seasons, winning their group every year from 2007/08 onwards and a record 21 times in all. They are unbeaten in their last four group stage campaigns, including this one, and have come through their section undefeated a record 13 times. It is 20 years since Barça last failed to finish in the top two of their UEFA Champions League group.

• Barcelona have not lost in the UEFA Champions League group stage since a 3-1 reverse at Manchester City on Matchday 4 in 2016/17. Their record since is W17 D6.

• In 2019/20, Barcelona picked up 14 points to finish four clear of Borussia Dortmund in their section. They picked up seven points both home and away, beating Internazionale 2-1 twice, winning by the same score at Slavia Praha and also defeating Dortmund 3-1 at the Camp Nou; they were held to goalless draws in Germany and at home by Slavia.

• Having replaced Ernesto Valverde with Quique Setién as coach, the Blaugrana then saw off Napoli in the round of 16 (1-1 a, 3-1 h), only to suffer their heaviest European loss in the quarter-finals in Lisbon as they went down 8-2 to Bayern.

• That defeat was one of only three in Barcelona's last 35 UEFA Champions League fixtures (W22 D10).

• Barcelona have appeared in 13 successive UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, a competition record. They last failed to reach the last eight in 2006/07.

• Barcelona have been European champions on five occasions, most recently in 2015 after beating Juve 4-1 in the final. Koeman, who succeeded Setién as coach in August, scored the winner in their first final victory against Sampdoria in 1992.

• Messi's goal on Matchday 1 made him the first player to score in 16 successive UEFA Champions League campaigns.

• Already the youngest player to score in the UEFA Champions League, Ansu Fati was also on target against Ferencváros; Pedri's strike meant for the first time in the competition's history, two players under 18 had found the net in the same match.

• Fati's goal on Matchday 1, aged 17 years 355 days, made him the first player to score more than once in the UEFA Champions League before his 18th birthday.

• Barça have won only seven of their last 18 away matches in European competition (D7 L4), although they are unbeaten in their last five (W3 D2).

• Barcelona's last meeting with a Ukrainian club before Matchday 3 came against Dynamo's great rivals Shakhtar Donetsk in the quarter-finals of their victorious 2010/11 UEFA Champions League campaign, a 5-1 home win – Piqué scoring the third goal – preceding a 1-0 win in Ukraine in which Messi was on target.

• Barça have won five of their nine away games against Ukrainian clubs, losing three – two of those defeats coming in Kyiv in the UEFA Champions League. The Blaugrana have won their last six matches versus teams from Ukraine – including a 1-0 extra-time defeat of Shakhtar in the 2009 UEFA Super Cup in Monaco – since a 3-2 home loss to Shakhtar in December 2008.

Links and trivia
• Mircea Lucescu's record against Barcelona as a coach is W2 D1 L6. The current Dynamo boss was in charge of the Shakhtar side beaten by the Spanish club in the 2009 UEFA Super Cup.

• Have played in Spain:
Denys Boyko (Málaga 2016/17 loan)
Carlos de Pena (Real Oviedo 2017 loan)

• Boyko's last European game against a Spanish side was Dnipro's 3-2 loss to Sevilla in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League final.

• Ansu Fati scored his first international goal in Spain's 4-0 UEFA Nations League victory against Ukraine in Madrid on 6 September.

• Tsygankov scored the winner as Ukraine beat Spain 1-0 at home in the UEFA Nations League on 13 October. He was one of seven Dynamo players to feature in that win, with Fati the only Barcelona representative in the Spain side.

• Dynamo's Georgiy Bushchan made his international debut in Ukraine's friendly away to Antoine Griezmann's France on 7 October; the home side ran out 7-1 winners.

Latest news
Dynamo
• On 25 August, Dynamo beat coach Mircea Lucescu's former side Shakhtar 3-1 to lift the 2020 Ukrainian Super Cup.

• The Matchday 1 loss to Juventus was Dynamo's first under Lucescu (W9 D3) but they were unbeaten in domestic matches (W7 D2) since his appointment on 23 July before losing 3-0 to Shakhtar on 8 November.

• Dynamo returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory at Inhulets on Saturday. Denys Garmash opened the scoring with his first league goal for Dynamo since March 2019.

• Illia Zabarnyi was the only Dynamo player to feature in Ukraine's 3-1 loss to Germany in the UEFA Nations League on 14 November; the 18-year-old has now started three successive competitive internationals.

• Zabarnyi made his Dynamo debut on 11 September; less than a month later, he was making his first international appearance.

• Serhiy Sydorchuk, Viktor Tsygankov, Georgiy Bushchan, Mykola Shaparenko, Vitaliy Mykolenko, Oleksandr Karavaev, Denys Popov and Vladyslav Supryaha missed Ukraine's game with Germany due to illness. Ukraine's second UEFA Nations League fixture in November, away to Switzerland, was cancelled.

• In the UEFA Nations League, Tomasz Kędziora started Poland's 2-1 home loss to Netherlands on 18 November; Benjamin Verbič was a substitute in Slovenia's 0-0 draw in Greece that earned his country promotion to League B.

• Gerson Rodrigues played 90 minutes for Luxembourg in their 2-1 loss to Cyprus on 14 November but missed the game against Azerbaijan three days later due to illness.

• Bushchan, Shaparenko, Mykolenko, Karavaev, Supryaha, Volodymyr Shepeliev, Garmash and substitutes Heorhii Tsitaishvili and Tudor Băluţă returned from illness on Saturday, when Denys Boyko was an unused replacement. Oleksandr Syrota, Ruslan Neshcheret, Mikkel Duelund, Artem Shabanov, Bogdan Lednev and Oleksandr Andriyevskiy are sidelined.

• Kędziora suffered an ankle injury in Poland's game against the Netherlands despite completing 90 minutes but returned at Inhulets on Saturday.

• Oleksandr Tymchyk has been out since suffering an adductor injury in Dynamo's 0-0 home draw with Desna Chernihiv on 11 September. On 17 November he underwent surgery and is expected to be out until 2021.

• Nazariy Rusyn had an operation on his fractured collarbone on 19 November.

• On 30 October Vladimir Kostevych underwent surgery on his cruciate knee ligament injury and is expected to be sidelined for at least six months.

• Mykyta Burda tore an Achilles tendon on 5 September and is expected to be out for at least six months; he has not been included in Dynamo's UEFA Champions League squad.

Barcelona
• Lionel Messi made his 150th appearance in UEFA club competition on Matchday 3.

• Barcelona were four matches without a Liga victory (D2 L2), their longest sequence since September-October 2018, before a 5-2 home win against Real Betis on 7 November.

• Ronald Koeman's side were beaten 1-0 at Atlético de Madrid on Saturday and have 11 points from their first eight Liga games this season. They last had less points at the same stage in 1991/92, when it was two points for a win; they went on to take the title that season.

• Sergiño Dest became the first American to play for Barcelona when he made his debut as a substitute in a 1-1 home draw against Sevilla on 4 October.

• Ansu Fati has scored four goals in seven Liga appearances this season. His goal in a 3-1 defeat against Real Madrid on 24 October, aged 17 years 359 days, made him the youngest scorer in the Clásico in the 21st century.

• Gerard Piqué went off with a knee injury just past the hour on Saturday.

• Fati ruptured the internal meniscus in his left knee against Betis and is expected to be sidelined for four months.

• Sergio Busquets has been out since picking up a knee injury in Spain's 1-1 UEFA Nations League draw in Switzerland on 14 November.

• Ronald Araújo suffered a hamstring injury at Juventus on Matchday 2 and has not played since. Philippe Coutinho made his return from a hamstring injury of his own as a substitute at Atlético having been out since that defeat against Madrid.

• Marc-André ter Stegen returned after a knee injury against Dynamo on Matchday 3, his first appearance since the 8-2 UEFA Champions League quarter-final defeat to Bayern on 14 August.

• Samuel Umtiti has been out since June because of a knee problem.

• Sergi Roberto was the only Barcelona player to feature in Spain's 6-0 victory over Germany in Seville on 17 November that secured their place at the UEFA Nations League Finals.