Deportivo hope for a lightning strike

RC Deportivo La Coruña will hope a historic precedent was set last time they played Aalborg BK at home as they look to rescue their UEFA Cup campaign after a 3-0 Round of 32 first-leg defeat in Denmark.

• Two goals from Anders Due and a late Michael Jakobsen penalty have left the Spanish side with a mountain to climb at the Riazor, but they know from experience that first-leg deficits do not always spell disaster against AaB.

• 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.

• 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.

• The teams for that match in Spain were:
Deportivo: Francisco Liaño, Voro, Nando, José Luis Ribera, Miroslav Djukić, Donato, Luis María López Rekarte, Javier Manjarin (Marcos Vales, 47), Claudio Barragán, Fran González, Bebeto (Pedro Riesco, 77).
AaB: Thomas Gill, Lars Thomsen, Torben Boye, Søren Dissing (Petter Rasmussen, 65), Søren Thorst, Calle Facius, Ib Simonsen, Jan Pedersen, Erik Bo Andersen, Henrik Rasmussen, Jens Jessen.

• 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.

• In total, AaB have now played six games against Spanish sides, winning two, drawing one and losing three. They have lost both their games on Spanish soil, 5-0 and 6-3.

• The three games against AaB represent Deportivo's only experience of Danish opposition.

• AaB will be playing their first European away 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 second game in continental competition as a coach.

• Prior to the first leg, Deportivo counterpart Miguel Ángel Lotina had 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.

• Deportivo are unbeaten in nine European matches at home since losing 5-0 to AS Monaco FC in Group A of the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League on 8 December 2004 - a run comprising seven wins and two goalless draws. They have scored 15 and conceded just once at the Riazor in the process.

• AaB are unbeaten in four European games since their 6-3 loss at Villarreal.

• AaB have not been victorious in their last three European away games, though they did win the previous three.

• Due's two goals against Depor have seen him take over as AaB's top European scorer this season with three goals since the start of the UEFA Champions League group stage.

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

• Deportivo prevailed in their first ever UEFA club competition penalty shoot-out which took place in the first round of this season's UEFA Cup. After a 2-2 aggregate draw, they beat SK Brann 3-2 on penalties at the Riazor.

• AaB's only penalty shoot-out in UEFA competition to date ended in a 4-2 spot-kick defeat by HNK Hajduk Split in the first round of the 1987/88 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. The tie had finished 1-1 on aggregate.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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).

• Depor's Alberto Lopo is serving a one match ban while Andres Guardado is within a booking of a one-match European suspension, as is AaB's Thomas Enevoldsen.

• 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.