AaB out to salve Depor scars

On the receiving end of a footballing lesson from RC Deportivo La Coruña back in 1993, Aalborg BK will need to bring all their recent UEFA Champions League experience to bear if they wish to avenge that defeat.

• AaB were drawn against Depor in the first round of the 1993/94 UEFA Cup, and won the first leg 1-0 on home soil thanks to a goal from Søren Thorst.

• The lineups for that match in Denmark were:
AaB: Thomas Gill, Lars Thomsen, Torben Boye, Søren Dissing (Henrik Kristensen, 77), Søren Thorst, Calle Facius, Ib Simonsen, Jan Pedersen, Erik Bo Andersen, Henrik Rasmussen, Jens Jessen.
Deportivo: Francisco Liaño, Paco, Nando, Voro, Miroslav Djukić, Donato, Luis María López Rekarte, José Ramón González, Claudio Barragán, Fran González, Javier Manjarin.

• It remains AaB's only victory in five competitive games against Spanish opposition, with their overall record reading W1 D1 L3.

• Things were quite different in the second leg, however, when AaB, under then head coach Poul Erik Andreasen, were overrun at the Riazor. A Bebeto hat-trick and a Claudio Barragán double consigned the visitors to a 5-0 reverse and sent Depor through 5-1 on aggregate.

• AaB met Deportivo's Liga rivals Villarreal CF in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage. They went down 6-3 in Spain and drew 2-2 at home.

• The aforementioned games against AaB in 1993 remain Deportivo's only experience of Danish opposition.

• AaB will be playing their first European encounter under their new Swedish coach Magnus Pehrsson, who officially took charge on 1 January 2009.

• Having parted company with Bruce Rioch in October 2008, AaB will be grateful to Allan Kuhn for his sterling performance as caretaker boss. Kuhn handed over the reins to former GAIS Göteborg coach Pehrsson after amassing a 12-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

• Boasting European playing experience from his time at Djurgårdens IF and IFK Göteborg, this will be Pehrsson's first game in continental competition as a coach.

• Deportivo counterpart Miguel Ángel Lotina has coached teams against Danish opposition on three occasions. His RC Celta de Vigo charges won 2-0 at home and lost 1-0 away against Odense BK in the first round of the 2002/03 UEFA Cup, while he later guided RCD Espanyol to a 1-1 draw at Brøndby IF on 30 November 2005 in that season's UEFA Cup group stage.

• Lotina's face will be a familiar one to AaB goalkeeper Karim Zaza. Zaza was between the sticks for Odense in both of those meetings with Celta, as well as being an unused substitute for Brøndby in the 1-1 draw with Espanyol.

• Jeppe Curth, who fired two goals, was the only AaB player to score more than once in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Diego Colotto scored three UEFA Cup goals for Deportivo in the autumn, and was the only player at the club to find the net more than once in Europe.

• Of the eleven teams that progressed to the UEFA Cup from the UEFA Intertoto Cup this season, four are still in the competition: Deportivo, Aston Villa FC, SC Braga and VfB Stuttgart. UEFA traditionally awards a plaque to the Intertoto side that enjoys the longest UEFA Cup campaign.

• Danish champions in 2007/08, AaB's third-place finish in Group E of the UEFA Champions League earned them a place in the UEFA Cup Round of 32. Deportivo, eighth in the Spanish top tier last season, qualified in second spot in UEFA Cup Group H.

• AaB are one of six clubs in the UEFA Cup who qualified for Europe this season as domestic champions. The others are R. Standard de Liège (Belgium), Olympiacos CFP (Greece), Galatasaray AŞ (Turkey), FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) and FC Zenit St. Petersburg (Russia).

• AaB have no disciplinary problems, but Deportivo's Andres Guardado and Alberto Lopo are both within a booking of one-match bans.

• January squad changes:-
AaB
Players added to squad list:Kjetil Wæhler, Luton Shelton, Marcus Tracy.
Players removed from squad list:Casper Nordstrøm, Jacob Nordstrøm.
Deportivo
Players added to squad list:Munúa.
Players removed from squad list:Laure.

• The victors of this tie will take on FC København or Manchester City FC in the Round of 16 on 12 and 18/19 March, and will play the second leg at home.

• Therefore, there could be an all-Danish affair in the next round if both AaB and København come through their ties.