CSKA to make last stand by the Thames

PFC CSKA Sofia travel to London needing everything to go their way in Group E but will meet a Fulham FC side hungry for the victory that would greatly improve their chances of progression.

• The Bulgarian outfit have to win and hope AS Roma lose at home to FC Basel 1893 to retain an outside hope of qualifying for the last 32. Fulham, in third, would be eliminated if they lose and Roma pick up a point.

Previous meetings
• The sides drew 1-1 in Sofia in their first meeting on Matchday 1. That was Fulham's first competitive game against a Bulgarian side. CSKA are making their eighth trip to England – and their first to London since a 1-0 loss at Chelsea FC on 4 November 1970. Their record in England reads W2 D2 L3.

Match background
• Fulham have scored once in all four of their Group E outings to date, with those four strikes netting them a win, two draws and a defeat.

• Fulham are yet to lose in eleven European home encounters – six at Craven Cottage and five at Loftus Road, home of Queens Park Rangers FC.

• CSKA have won just one of their last eight European away games and have lost their previous five away fixtures in UEFA club competition group stages since a 3-1 triumph at Kocaelispor in the 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

Team facts
• CSKA are coached by Luboslav Penev, who replaced his uncle – iconic former Bulgaria coach Dimitar Penev – in February. The 43-year-old, who played up front alongside Hristo Stoichkov at CSKA and represented both Valencia CF and Club Atlético de Madrid, resigned in the wake of the 3-1 Matchday 4 loss to Basel. However, following an emergency meeting with the club's owners, he decided to return saying that he hopes "the recent stormy events at the club will make us stronger".

• Penev's three games against English clubs as a player produced two wins and a defeat. He was also involved in three games for Bulgaria on English soil at EURO '96™.

• Penev faced Fulham coach Roy Hodgson as a player in a 1992 friendly game, when he helped Bulgaria beat the Englishman's Switzerland side 2-0 at the Wankdorf Stadium in Berne.

• CSKA assistant coach Radoslav Zdravkov will take the reins for the visit to Fulham with Penev unable to travel to England because of personal problems.

• Hodgson came up against CSKA during his time as coach of Norwegian side Viking FK, with the Bulgarian outfit – under Serbian Miodrag Ješić – prevailing 2-0 at home in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup group stage.

• Fulham's Damien Duff also visited CSKA with a previous club, scoring his side's third as Blackburn Rovers FC drew 3-3 in Sofia to come through a 2002/03 UEFA Cup first-round tie on away goals.

• CSKA host Roma on Matchday 6 in what will be the Italian club's 200th game in UEFA club competition. Fulham visit Basel on the same night, 16 December.