Milan's conquerors await St-Etienne

Having vanquished Italian giants AC Milan at the last time of asking, Werder Bremen will look to hand their UEFA Cup Round of 16 opponents AS Saint-Etienne their first European defeat since November 1982 at the Weserstadion.

• St-Etienne are unbeaten in their last 12 European games since losing 4-0 at FC Bohemians Praha in the second leg of a 1982/83 UEFA Cup second-round tie on 3 November 1982. That run has comprised seven wins and five draws.

• Their six away games since that defeat in Prague have ended in four wins and two draws.

• The two sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition.

• Bremen's record against French clubs reads P11 W3 D3 L5. Their first meeting with a Ligue 1 side was a memorable one as it came in the 1991/92 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final, when they beat AS Monaco FC 2-0 in Lisbon.

• When hosting French teams, their record reads P5 W2 D2 L1, with that lone defeat coming in their most recent home game against Ligue 1 opponents – a 3-0 UEFA Champions League first knockout round first-leg reverse against St-Etienne's local rivals Olympique Lyonnais in 2004/05. They lost the return leg 7-2.

• St-Etienne's Cédric Varrault faced Bremen with his old side OGC Nice in the third round of the 2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup, playing in both legs as the German side drew 0-0 in France and won 1-0 at the Weserstadion. Frank Baumann is the only current Bremen player to have played in those fixtures.

• St-Etienne's record against German sides reads P15 W3 D4 L8 and includes the final of the 1975/76 European Champion Clubs' Cup, which Les Verts lost 1-0 against FC Bayern München.

• St-Etienne have not played a German side since losing 3-1 on aggregate to Berliner FC Dynamo in the qualifying round of the 1981/82 European Cup.

• Their away record against German sides reads P7 W1 D0 L6. However, that sole win was an impressive 5-0 victory at Hamburger SV in the third round of the 1980/81 UEFA Cup.

• Thomas Schaaf has coached Bremen for eight of their games against French clubs, with his record reading P8 W2 D2 L4 overall and P4 W2 D1 L1 at home. He played in one match against Ligue 1 opposition with Bremen, the aforementioned 1991/92 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final against Monaco, in which he appeared as a late substitute.

• St-Etienne coach Alain Perrin, who replaced Laurent Roussey earlier in the season, has coached in four games against German sides with ES Troyes Aube Champagne and Lyon, his record reading P4 W3 D1 L0 and including a win and a draw on German soil.

• Bremen's Serbian full-back Duško Tošić played in France for FC Sochaux-Montbéliard in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons. Perrin was his coach in his final year in France when Sochaux finished seventh in Ligue 1 and won the French Cup, with St-Etienne players Sébastien Grax and Ilan among his team-mates over the course of his two campaigns.

• St-Etienne's on-loan Portuguese midfielder Paulo Machado will also be up against old team-mates, having played alongside Bremen's Diego and Hugo Almeida during the 2004/05 season at FC Porto, with Os Dragões finishing second in the Liga.

• Bremen are unbeaten in their last four European games, drawing three and winning one since going down 3-0 at home against Panathinaikos FC in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage on 4 November 2008.

• The loss to Panathinaikos is their only defeat in their last eight home games in continental competition.

• Claudio Pizarro is Bremen's top scorer in Europe this season with four goals in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup while Ilan is St-Etienne's most prolific marksman with five.

• Bundesliga runners-up last season, Bremen earned their Round of 16 place by finishing third in UEFA Champions League Group B, then beating AC Milan on away goals in the Round of 32, drawing 1-1 at home and 2-2 at San Siro.

• St-Etienne – fifth in Ligue 1 last season – topped UEFA Cup Group G, and then knocked out Greek champions Olympiacos CFP in the Round of 32, winning 3-1 in Piraeus and 2-1 at home.

• Bremen's Baumann, Clemens Fritz, Daniel Jensen, Mesut Özil, Diego and Markus Rosenberg are within a booking of a one-match ban. St-Etienne's Efstathios Tavlaridis is suspended for this game, with team-mates Cédric Varrault and Geoffrey Dernis also within a caution of an enforced lay-off.

• The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals takes place in Nyon on 20 March, exactly two months before the final at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul on 20 May.