Imperilled OM aim to mount comeback

Olympique de Marseille will need to be at their incisive best at the Stade Vélodrome on Thursday as they aim to recover from their damaging 2-0 defeat in the first leg of their UEFA Cup quarter-final against FC Shakhtar Donetsk.

1) Match background

Previous meetings:
FC Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 Olympique de Marseille
2008/09 UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg

• Marseille were not afraid to attack at the RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium but fell behind to Tomáš Hübschman's 39th-minute opener and conceded again in the second half, Jadson registering on 65 minutes to put the hosts within sight of their first European semi-final. Were it not for some expert saves from Steve Mandanda, Shakhtar could even have posted a more convincing scoreline.

Marseille's record against Ukrainian clubs: P5 W1 D3 L1
Marseille's record at home against Ukrainian clubs: P2 W1 D1 L0
Shakhtar's record against French clubs: P8 W4 D2 L2
Shakhtar's record away against French clubs: P4 W2 D0 L2

• Shakhtar have never bowed out of a European tie after winning the first leg by two goals, while Marseille have succeeded once in four attempts to overturn such a deficit. That triumph came in the 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup final when ten-man OM routed RC Deportivo La Coruña, who finished with just nine players, 5-1 following a 2-0 loss in Spain.

• Marseille only narrowly fell short on the three other occasions, most recently in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup second round when they beat FC Sion 3-1 at home but were eliminated on away goals by the Swiss team. The other two losses came at home to Göztepe (1968/69) and FC Spartak Trnava (1970/71) in the first round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was not a UEFA club competition. OM lost the first tie to the Turkish side on the toss of a coin before a penalty shoot-out defeat in the latter.

• Shakhtar have played three knockout ties against French clubs, winning one and losing two. This is their 50th UEFA Cup game.

• Marseille have met Shakhtar's Ukrainian rivals FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in two UEFA club competition ties, winning both of them. They triumphed 1-0 on aggregate in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup third round and won a 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup tie on away goals after two draws.

• Both coaches had spells at the helm of Galatasaray AŞ – Shakhtar's Mircea Lucescu (2000-02) and Marseille's Erik Gerets (2005-07). This should motivate them yet further to reach this season's UEFA Cup final, which will be held at Fenerbahçe SK's Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul on 20 May.

• The two coaches have met before with previous clubs. Lucescu's Galatasaray were paired with Gerets's PSV Eindhoven in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League first group stage, with the Dutch outfit winning 3-1 at home and Galatasaray striking back 2-0 in Turkey.

• Lucescu has been in charge for 13 games against French clubs during his time at FC Rapid Bucureşti, Galatasaray and Shakhtar, with his overall record reading P13 W6 D3 L4. Away from home, his coaching record reads P6 W3 D0 L3.

• Gerets's only other experience of Ukrainian opponents dates back to his days as PSV's right-back, when his side met Dnipro in the 1985/86 UEFA Cup second round, drawing 2-2 in Eindhoven but bowing out with a 1-0 defeat in what was then the Soviet Union.

• Though ineligible for the remainder of Marseille's UEFA Cup campaign, Brazilian striker Brandão will at least have some useful insider information on Shakhtar, having left the Ukrainian club for the Stade Vélodrome in January. Brandão said: "I'm sad not to be able to play in this competition, but that is the rule and it has to be respected. I will be there and I will cheer OM on."

• The negotiations over Brandão's transfer led to cordial relations developing between the two clubs, with Marseille president Pape Diouf saying: "It's a pity that we have to meet now in the UEFA Cup as one of us will end up going out."

• Marseille boast Ukrainian talent in the form of 21-year-old goalkeeper Dmytro Nepogodov, though the club's reserve custodian has yet to be handed a first-team outing. OM also had a Ukrainian goalkeeper back in 1951/52, with Gamovka-born Pierre Pshenitchny making one league appearance.

• Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko expressed her gratitude to Shakhtar, FC Dynamo Kyiv and eliminated FC Metalist Kharkiv for their achievements after the three Premier League teams competed in the Round of 16, saying their success augured well for Ukraine's co-hosting of UEFA EURO 2012™.

• Diminutive Marseille striker Bakari Koné was recently named the Ivory Coast's Player of the Year for 2008. The 27-year-old topped the poll ahead of FC Barcelona's Yaya Touré and R. Standard de Liège's Cyriac Gohi Bi.

• Ukrainian champions Shakhtar finished third in UEFA Champions League Group C to reach the UEFA Cup Round of 32, where they beat Tottenham Hotspur FC 2-0 at home before drawing the return leg 1-1 in London. They lost 1-0 at PFC CSKA Moskva in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie but progressed after a 2-0 home success.

• Shakhtar are the only team left in the UEFA Cup who qualified for Europe this season as domestic champions.

• Third in Ligue 1 last season, Marseille also finished third in UEFA Champions League Group D to qualify for the UEFA Cup Round of 32, where they beat FC Twente 7-6 on penalties in Enschede after trading 1-0 home defeats. They then edged out AFC Ajax to reach the last eight, trading 2-1 home wins over 90 minutes before clinching a 4-3 aggregate success thanks to Tyrone Mears's extra-time header in Amsterdam.

• The winners of this tie will meet Paris Saint-Germain FC or Dynamo in the semi-finals on 30 April and 7 May, playing the second leg at home. The winners of that semi-final will be the nominal home side in the final.

Penalties:-
Marseille: Marseille have been involved in three UEFA club competition penalty shoot-outs. They lost 5-3 to FK Crvena Zvezda after the 1990/91 European Champion Clubs' Cup final had ended goalless but beat KFC Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen 4-1 on spot-kicks at home after a scoreless first-round tie in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup. Finally, they overcame Twente 7-6 by the same method after concluding a 1-1 aggregate draw in the Netherlands in this season's UEFA Cup Round of 32.

Shakhtar: Shakhtar were beaten 4-1 on penalties away to Club Brugge KV following a 2-2 aggregate result in the third qualifying round of the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League. It is their only UEFA competition shoot-out to date.

2) Form book

Marseille: Marseille are appearing in their third UEFA Cup quarter-final, having won the previous two – in 1998/99 against RC Celta de Vigo and in 2003/04 against FC Internazionale Milano. They have needed penalties (against Twente, Round of 32) and extra time (against Ajax, Round of 16) to reach this stage this season.

Last five European games: LWWDL
Last five European home games: LWDLW
Top scorer (Europe): Mamadou Niang (5, including 3 in the UEFA Champions League)

Last five domestic games: DWWWW
Last five domestic home games: WDDWW
Top scorer (Ligue 1): Mamadou Niang, Bakari Koné (8)

Shakhtar: Making their first appearance in a UEFA Cup quarter-final, Shakhtar have won two of their last six UEFA Cup away games, both of them in France where they beat AS Nancy-Lorraine and Stade Rennais FC 1-0.

Last five European games: WDLWW
Last five European away games: WLWDL
Top scorer (Europe): Jadson (6, including 4 in the UEFA Champions League)

Last five domestic games: WWWLW
Last five domestic away games: DWWWL
Top scorer (Premier League): Fernandinho (5)

Disciplinary information:
Marseille: Hatem Ben Arfa, Benoît Cheyrou, Taye Taiwo, Bakari Koné, Mamadou Niang, Mathieu Valbuena, Modeste M'Bami and Karim Ziani will face suspension if they are cautioned.

Shakhtar: Mykola Ischenko is suspended for the second leg, while Hübschman, Olexandr Kucher, Fernandinho and Darijo Srna are all within a booking of a one-match ban.

3) Who are...

Marseille

Honours
• UEFA Champions League: 1992/93
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2005, 2006
• Domestic honours: 8 French titles, 10 French Cups

Trivia
• OM are one of only two Ligue 1 teams to have won a major European title, claiming the inaugural UEFA Champions League in 1992/93. They have also won eight league titles, second only to AS Saint-Etienne's tally of ten, as well as a record ten French Cups.

• Marseille's motto Droit Au But (Straight to Goal) dates from when the multi-disciplinary sport club's main focus was rugby union. The Olympique in their name is a nod to the variety of sports the club were engaged in and also the city's Greek roots. 'Massalia', France's oldest city, was founded as a Greek trading post in 600BC.

• As the name might suggest, Marseille's Stade Vélodrome – built in 1937 – hosted a major cycle track until the mid-1980s, with stages of the Tour de France concluding there.

Shakhtar

Honours
• Domestic honours: 4 Ukrainian titles, 6 Ukrainian Cups, 4 USSR Cups

Trivia
• Founded in 1936 as FC Stakhanovets, the Donbass side took on their current name in 1946. Shakhtar's name literally means 'Miner'. Their nicknames, Hirnyky (the Pitmen) and Kroty (the Moles), also refer to their colliery roots.

• Shakhtar won four USSR Cups in the days of the Soviet Union and twice finished second in the league, in 1975 and 1979. In the latter season, Vitaliy Starukhin scored 26 goals and was named the Soviet Union's Player of the Year.

• Famous Shakhtar youth academy products include former Manchester United FC player Andrei Kanchelskis, one-time Russia captain Viktor Onopko and Serhiy Rebrov, while Shakhtar old boy Anatoliy Konkov was a member of the USSR squad that came second at the 1972 UEFA European Championship.