Sevilla await canny Lucescu

Coach Mircea Lucescu will look to put his experience of Spanish sides to good use as FC Shakhtar Donetsk visit UEFA Cup holders Sevilla FC in the UEFA Cup Round of 16.

• The two sides have never met in European competition.

• UEFA Cup holders Sevilla reached the knockout stage by finishing second in Group C. They then beat FC Steaua Bucuresti 2-0 away and 1-0 at home to seal their passage to the last 16.

• Ukrainian champions Shakhtar finished third in UEFA Champions League Group D to earn a place in the UEFA Cup Round of 32. After drawing 1-1 at home against AS Nancy-Lorraine, they looked to be in trouble, but Fernandinho's solitary goal in the return in France set them up for a place in the last 16.

• Shakhtar's Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu has seen plenty of action against Spanish sides, but has never faced Sevilla as player or coach. His only game as a player against a team from Spain ended in defeat for FC Dinamo Bucuresti against Real Madrid CF in 1975, but he played in three draws against Spain with Romania.

• Lucescu led Romania to a 1-1 draw against Spain at the 1984 UEFA European Championship, and in 15 subsequent games against Spanish sides as a club coach – with Shakhtar, Beşiktaş JK and Galatasaray SK – has recorded four wins, three draws and eight defeats. The most memorable of those games was Galatasaray's 2-1 win against Madrid in the 2000 UEFA Super Cup.

• Both Shakhtar's Matuzalem and Sevilla's Enzo Maresca spent time on loan at Piacenza FC in successive seasons. Matuzalem was at the Italian club in 2001/02 while Maresca joined them in 2002/03.

• Shakhtar's Serbian duo Igor Duljaj and Zvonimir Vukić will be up against international team-mate Ivica Dragutinović, a defender at Sevilla.

• Sevilla have never faced Ukrainian opponents before.

• Shakhtar have met Spanish opposition in two previous knockout ties – losing both – and have been pooled with Primera División sides in two UEFA Champions League group stage campaigns. In eight games, they have won one, drawn three and lost four against Spanish teams. Their best individual result was a 2-0 home win against FC Barcelona in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• The second leg will be played in Donetsk on 15 March. The winners of the tie will enter the draw for the final rounds of the competition in Glasgow on Friday 16 March. No teams will be seeded in the draw and, for the first time in this season's competition, teams from the same national association may be drawn against each other.