Olympiacos and Hertha battle for bronze

Victory will guarantee Olympiacos CFP a place in the Round of 32 as they host Hertha BSC Berlin, though it will take a truly remarkable result in Matchday 5's other Group B game for a draw not to suffice for the Greek side.

• Third place in the section is the big prize on offer on Matchday 5. Hertha need an away win to get it, but a home victory is the only result that would make qualification an absolute certainty for Ernesto Valverde's Olympiacos side.

• SL Benfica host FC Metalist Kharkiv in the night's other Group B game needing a win by an eight-goal margin, coupled with a draw between Olympiacos and Hertha, to snatch third place.

• Finishing positions in the section are important when it comes to the Round of 32 draw. Group winners will be paired with third-placed sides from other UEFA Cup sections, while second-placed finishers will be drawn against one of the eight sides who finished third in the UEFA Champions League groups. The UEFA Cup group winners and runners-up will play the second leg at home.

• Olympiacos lost 1-0 at Metalist on Matchday 4 while Hertha lost at home against Galatasaray AŞ by the same scoreline.

• This will be Olympiacos and Hertha's first meeting in UEFA club competition, and Hertha's debut game against Greek opponents.

• Olympiacos have played eight European games against German sides, with their record reading W3 D0 L5. Their home matches with Bundesliga teams have ended W2 D0 L2.

• Olympiacos's Spanish coach Ernesto Valverde has a great record against German clubs. In five games against Bundesliga opponents – two as a coach and three as a player, all with RCD Espanyol – he has recorded five victories.

• Hertha's Swiss coach Lucien Favre has a less positive record against Greek opposition. His only previous meetings with Greek sides came as a player when his Servette FC side were drawn against Larissa FC in the second round of the 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, losing 2-1 away and 1-0 at home.

• Olympiacos's Konstantinos Mitroglou has experience of German football, having played for VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2006/07.

• Hetha's Czech goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobný played in Greece between 2001 and 2005 with Panionios GSS. Team-mate Marko Pantelić also played in Greece for Iraklis FC in 1995/96.

• Olympiacos's Sebastian Leto and Hertha's Andriy Voronin are nominally team-mates. The two players are both on loan from Liverpool FC, but have only taken part in the same competitive match once. Even on that occasion, Leto had been substituted by the time Voronin joined the fray from the bench as the Reds lost 1-0 at home to Olympique de Marseille in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Olympiacos are unbeaten in their last eight UEFA competition home games, and have scored five goals in both of their UEFA Cup matches in Piraeus this year, beating FC Nordsjælland 5-0 and Benfica 5-1. Their record over those eight fixtures reads W4 D4 L0.

• Hertha are unbeaten in four UEFA Cup away games this season, having entered the competition via the UEFA Fair Play system. Those four matches have ended in one 2-0 win and three 0-0 draws. Thus they have yet to concede a goal in 360 minutes of continental football on their travels in 2008/09.

• Olympiacos's Paraskevas Antzas is serving a one-match ban, while Didier Domi and Luciano Galletti are within a caution of a similar suspension, along with Hertha's Gojko Kačar, Cicero Santos and Josip Šimunić.

• The draw for the UEFA Cup Round of 32 (when teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other) and Round of 16 will be held at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon on Friday 19 December at 13.00CET.