Sampdoria take up Metalist challenge

Having recorded their fourth successive European 1-0 win in the first leg in Genoa, FC Metalist Kharkiv are within sight of a major UEFA Cup upset as UC Sampdoria come to Ukraine for a Round of 32 decider.

• The two sides' first meeting in European club competition was decided by Denys Oliynyk's goal as Metalist's splendid form continued. They have now won five of their last six UEFA Cup games, conceding just once in the process.

• A 3-2 reverse against Everton FC in last season's UEFA Cup first round was Metalist's only defeat in six European home games to date.

• With three 1-0 wins and a 0-0 draw in Group B, the Ukrainian outfit matched the achievements of Hertha BSC Berlin and Middlesbrough FC in 2005/06 to become only the third team not to concede throughout the UEFA Cup group stage.

• A 3-0 loss at R. Standard de Liège in UEFA Cup Group C ended a sequence of five European away games without defeat for Sampdoria, a run which included four wins.

• Metalist, who took third place in the Ukrainian Premier League last season, qualified for the Round of 32 as Group B winners. Sampdoria, who were sixth in Serie A in 2007/08, finished third in Group C.

• Prior to the first leg, Sampdoria had never previously faced a Ukrainian side, while Metalist had never met Italian opponents.

• The Genoa outfit's most tangible connection to Ukraine remains their former player Oleksiy Mykhailychenko, the current Ukrainian national team coach, who was part of the Blucerchiati's 1990/91 title-winning squad.

• Prior to the first leg, Sampdoria coach Walter Mazzarri had yet to come up against Ukrainian opposition, while his Metalist counterpart Myron Markevich was equally inexperienced as regards Serie A teams.

• Both Sampdoria and Metalist were eliminated in the first round of last season's UEFA Cup, by Aalborg BK and Everton respectively.

• Emiliano Bonnazzoli was Sampdoria's top scorer in Europe in the autumn with four goals, but joined ACF Fiorentina in January. Bruno Fornaroli struck twice in the first round, however the Uruguayan striker is currently on loan at CA San Lorenzo de Almagro leaving Antonio Cassano as the only player at the club to have scored more than once in Europe this season.

• Brazilians Edmar and Jajá are Metalist's top European scorers this season with two goals each.

• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winners in 1989/90, Sampdoria are taking part in their fourth UEFA Cup campaign. This is the first time they have reached this stage of the competition.

• This is Metalist's third season in continental competition and is their first taste of playing European football after the winter break.

• Metalist's Brazilian striker Jajá was voted Ukrainian Player of the Year for 2008 in December after a poll of the nation's top-flight players and coaches conducted by national sports newspaper Komanda.

• Metalist is literally translated as 'metal worker'. The club was founded in 1925 and initially sponsored by a local train construction plant.

• Sampdoria came to life in 1946 after the merger of Genoese teams Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria. The blue in the club's home jersey is taken from Andrea Doria and the white, red and black stripe from Sampierdarenese.

• Metalist have never been involved in a penalty shoot-out in UEFA club competition.

• Sampdoria's two penalty shoot-outs to date in UEFA competition came in successive rounds of the 1994/95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. They beat quarter-final opponents FC Porto 5-3 on penalties following a 1-1 aggregate draw only to go down 3-2 on spot-kicks against Arsenal FC after the sides' semi-final finished 5-5 on aggregate.

• Metalist's Seweryn Gancarczyk and Papa Gueye are within a booking of a one-match ban, as is Sampdoria's Gennaro Delvecchio. However, the visitors will be without Stefano Lucchini who picked up a third yellow card of the competition in the first leg.

• The victors of this tie will meet either FC Dynamo Kyiv or Valencia CF in the Round of 16 on 12 and 18/19 March, and will play the second leg at home.

• There is, therefore, the possibility of an all-Ukrainian Round of 16 clash between Dynamo and Metalist. This would be the first meeting between two Ukrainian sides in European club competition.