Leverkusen host all-German opener

The 32nd all-German UEFA club competition tie – and the 26th in the UEFA Cup – will see Bayer 04 Leverkusen take on Hamburger SV in this season's Round of 16.

• The two sides have never met in European competition, but have been regular competitors in the Bundesliga for decades.

• There is a long history of German encounters in the UEFA Cup. There have been six all-German semi-finals, and in 1979/80 all four semi-finalist teams came from the former West Germany. Eintracht Frankfurt beat FC Bayern München in one semi, with VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach beating VfB Stuttgart in the other. Eintracht won the final on away goals, losing 3-2 away but winning 1-0 at home in the second leg.

• The most recent all-German encounter took place in 1998, when FC Bayern München and 1. FC Kaiserslautern met in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. Bayern won the tie 6-0 on aggregate.

• Leverkusen have already played in an all-German UEFA Cup tie, meeting Werder Bremen in the semi-final of the 1987/88 competition. They won 1-0 at home, with Alois Reinhardt scoring the only goal, and then drew 0-0 at the Weserstadion to progress.

• Leverkusen went on to win on penalties in the final, losing 3-0 against RCD Espanyol in Spain but winning by the same margin at home and prevailing 3-2 in a shoot-out.

• Hamburg have played in two previous all-German ties, one in the UEFA Cup and one in the European Champion Clubs' Cup.

• Back in the 1974/75 UEFA Cup, they met 1. FC Dynamo Dresden from the former East Germany in the third round, winning 4-1 at home and drawing 2-2 in Dresden. They went on to lose to Juventus in the quarter finals.

• In the 1982/83 European Cup, they met another East German side, Berliner FC Dynamo, in the first round, drawing 1-1 in Berlin and then winning 2-0 at home. They went on to win the competition, beating Juventus 1-0 in the final with Felix Magath scoring the only goal in Athens.

• Leverkusen and Hamburg have met 60 times in league and German Cup games over the years, with Hamburg holding a slight head-to-head advantage with 24 games won to Leverkusen's 21. The remaining 15 games ended in draws.

• Of the 30 matches played in Leverkusen, the home side have won 13 and the visitors eleven with the remaining six matches ending in draws. Ominously for Leverkusen, they have not won in their last three games against Hamburg at the BayArena, losing twice and drawing once.

• Those statitics include two one-legged German Cup ties between the two sides. Leverkusen prevailed 2-1 at home against Hamburg after extra time in the second round of the 1997/98 competition, while Hamburg prevailed 3-2 at home at the same stage in the 2005/06 competition with Sergej Barbarez – now a Leverkusen player – scoring for Hamburg.

• Carsten Ramelow may be a lucky charm for Leverkusen in their matches against Hamburg. He was in the side that beat Hamburg 5-0 in the league in May 1997 and 4-1 in September 2001. However, his luck may not extend to away games – he was also a member of the team that lost 4-1 at Hamburg in May 2003.

• The teams have already met twice in the league this season. Hamburg won 1-0 at home against Leverkusen in August, with a Rafael van der Vaart penalty proving decisive.

• They met again on 9 February, with Van der Vaart opening the scoring at the BayArena before Manuel Freidrich levelled. Both sides had chances to win in an exciting encounter but the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

• Now 36, Bosnia-Herzegovnian midfielder Barbarez spent six years at Hamburg before joining Leverkusen in the summer of 2006. At Hamburg, he played alongside current squad members Bastian Reinhardt, David Jarolím, Timothée Atouba, Guy Demel, Collin Benjamin, Mario Fillinger, Piotr Trochowski, Van der Vaart and Nigel de Jong.

• In addition, Barbarez was team-mates with Hamburg's Otto Addo at BV Borussia Dortmund in the 1999/00 season.

• Hamburg goalkeeper Frank Rost was in the first team Werder Bremen until 2002 while Leverkusen midfielder Simon Rolfes was coming through the youth ranks. They never played a senior professional game together.

• Leverkusen defender Manuel Friedrich played alongside Hamburg's Egyptian striker Mohamed Zidan at 1. FSV Mainz 05 in the 2005/05 campaign.

• Leverkusen have won all four of their home games in the UEFA Cup this season, scoring ten goals and conceding just two.

• Leverkusen's Stefan Kiessling is currently the joint top scorer in the UEFA Cup, one of four players to have registered six times since the first round.

• Hamburg are the sole survivors from the UEFA Intertoto Cup and will receive an plaque to recognise them as the official winners of the 2007 competition from UEFA before the second leg in Hamburg on 12 March. European football's governing body recognises the winners of the traditional summer tournament to be the side which goes on to survive longest in the UEFA Cup.

• Hamburg's Nigel de Jong and Vincent Kompany are within a booking of a one-match ban, as are Leverkusen's Gonzalo Castro and Kiessling.

• Leverkusen finished top of Group E to qualify for the Round of 32 where they drew 0-0 at Galatasaray AS before winning 5-1 at home. Hamburg won Group D and then beat FC Zürich 3-1 on aggregate in the first knockout round.

• The second leg will be played in Hamburg on 12 March. The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the UEFA Cup will be held in Nyon on 14 March at 12.00 CET.