Zenit facing fight to hold on to crown

FC Zenit St. Petersburg's grip on the UEFA Cup looks to be slipping with the holders 2-0 down after the away leg of their Round of 16 tie against Udinese Calcio, Serie A's last contenders in Europe this season.

• The Russian side appeared set to leave the Stadio Friuli with a goalless draw, but an 85th-minute Fabio Quagliarella strike and Antonio Di Natale's penalty two minutes from time saw Udinese end a miserable week for Italian sides on an up note, with three of their Serie A rivals having been knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the first knockout round.

• The first leg was the two sides' first meeting in UEFA club competition.

• Udinese will be contesting their third game against a Russian side, having had their first taste of Premier-Liga opposition in the group stage of this season's UEFA Cup, winning 2-1 at FC Spartak Moskva.

• Zenit's record against Italian sides now reads P5 W0 D2 L3, with their two home games against Serie A opponents ending in a 3-0 defeat by Bologna FC in the 1999/00 UEFA Cup first round, and a 0-0 draw at home to Juventus in this season's UEFA Champions League. They have thus never won or scored at home against an Italian side.

• Udinese coach Pasquale Marino's only games against Russian opponents were the aforementioned win against Spartak in Moscow and last week's victory against Zenit.

• Zenit boss Dick Advocaat has a little more experience of Italian sides. In addition to his games against Udinese and Juventus with his current club, he was in charge for two two-legged ties against Parma FC as Rangers FC manager. His overall record against Italian sides in UEFA competition reads P7 W1 D2 L4.

• Advocaat's three home games as a club coach against Italian sides have ended in a win and two draws.

• Advocaat was also the Netherlands coach when his side lost 3-2 at home against Italy in a 1992 friendly game, Gianluca Vialli scoring the winner in Eindhoven after Dennis Bergkamp had struck twice to give the Oranje an early 2-0 lead.

• Zenit have won only one of their European home games since beating Rangers 2-0 in last season's UEFA Cup final in Manchester, with the other three producing two draws and a defeat.

• Zenit have twice recovered from being two goals down after the first leg of a European tie to progress. In the 2004/05 UEFA Cup second qualifying round, they trailed SK Austria Kärnten 3-1 following the first leg but prevailed on away goals courtesy of a 2-0 home win. Then, in last season's UEFA Cup Round of 16, they lost 3-1 at Olympique de Marseille before redeeming themselves with a 2-0 win at the Petrovsky Stadium.

• Udinese have lost just once in seven games since the start of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage, going down 2-0 at NEC Nijmegen in their final Group D fixture. That defeat was their only away loss in four games this season.

• Udinese have only once lost a European tie after winning the first leg at home, taking a 1-0 advantage to PAOK FC in the 2000/01 UEFA Cup second round, only to lose the return 3-0.

• They let a two-goal first-leg lead slip in this season's UEFA Cup first round, winning 2-0 at BV Borussia Dortmund before losing at home by the same margin. They went on to celebrate at the end of the contest, however, as they defeated the German side 4-3 on penalties to earn a group-stage berth.

• Zenit are one of four sides left in the UEFA Cup who qualified for 2008/09 European competition as domestic league champions, the others being Galatasaray AŞ (Turkey), Aalborg BK (Denmark) and FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine).

• Zenit are also one of four clubs still in the competition to have won the UEFA Cup along with AFC Ajax (1991/92), PFC CSKA Moskva (2004/05) and Galatasaray (1999/00).

• Advocaat is the only coach left in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup who has led a side to success in the competition before. Galatasaray boss Bülent Korkmaz won the UEFA Cup with the Turkish club in 1999/00, but as a player.

• Fabio Quagliarella is Udinese's top European scorer this season with five goals. Danny is Zenit's top marksman with two.

• Udinese finished seventh in Serie A last season to enter the UEFA Cup first round. They won UEFA Cup Group D and then beat KKS Lech Poznań in the Round of 32, drawing 2-2 in Poland and winning 2-1 at home.

• Zenit finished third in UEFA Champions League Group H to qualify for the UEFA Cup Round of 32. They beat VfB Stuttgart 2-1 home and away to earn their last-16 place.

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

• Udinese were involved in their debut UEFA competition penalty shoot-out in the aforementioned first-round game in this season's UEFA Cup when they beat Dortmund 4-3 on spot-kicks after a 2-2 aggregate draw.

• Zenit's Aleksandr Anyukov and Roman Shirokov are both serving suspensions for the second leg, with Danny, Ivica Križanac and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk also within a yellow card of a one-match ban.

• Udinese's Maurizio Domizzi is suspended, while Emanuele Belardi Gaetano D'Agostino and Andrea Coda are within a caution of a suspension. Coach Marino is also serving a touchline ban, having been sent to the stands before the end of the first leg against Zenit.

• The draw for both 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.