BATE braced for Everton examination

FC BATE Borisov lost 2-0 at SL Benfica on Matchday 1, but will hope to make amends as an upbeat Everton FC come calling in UEFA Europa League Group I, following the Merseysiders' 4-0 demolition of AEK Athens FC in their opening fixture.

Previous meetings
• The two sides have never met, while BATE have not played an English side before and Everton are yet to come up against opponents from Belarus.

Match background
• BATE made their debut in the group stage of a UEFA club competition in last season's UEFA Champions League. They finished at the foot of Group H despite two draws against Juventus and another against then UEFA Cup holders FC Zenit St. Petersburg.

• Everton claimed maximum points in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage, eventually losing out to ACF Fiorentina on penalties in the round of 16.

• BATE are playing their home games at the Dinamo Stadium in Minsk rather than their usual Gorodskoi Stadium. They have not won in any of their six European games in the capital, recording a 2-2 draw against Juventus and five defeats, in all of which they failed to score.

• Everton have gone three European games without an away win having triumphed on four consecutive overseas trips prior to that.

Team facts
• BATE, famously a team founded at a Borisov tractor factory, are led by Viktor Goncharenko, who last season became the youngest coach to hold the reins at a side in the UEFA Champions League at 31. A year older, he is now the youngest coach to lead a side into the UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Once a BATE defender, Goncharenko was forced to retire young with a cruciate injury, but stayed at the club as a coach, working his way up through the ranks before taking sole command in 2007.

• Everton's Scottish manager David Moyes had an unremarkable career as a central defender after starting off as a trainee at Celtic FC. He played the bulk of his games for Shrewsbury Town FC, Dunfermline Athletic FC and Preston North End FC, whom he later coached before moving to Goodison Park in 2002.

• Everton midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov played for FC Lokomotiv Moskva from 2004-09, the same club where BATE's Armenian forward Hovannes Goaryan was a trainee from 2007-08.

• BATE host AEK on Matchday 3, while Everton visit Benfica on the same night, 22 October.