Sharpshooters Shakhtar eye summit finish

FC Shakhtar Donetsk secured their round of 32 place on Matchday 4, but Club Brugge KV could yet deny them top spot in Group J if they can overcome the odds and earn a UEFA Europa League success in Ukraine.

• Club Brugge will qualify if they secure a better result at Shakhtar than Toulouse FC manage at home against FK Partizan.

Previous meetings
• A 4-1 victory in Bruges on Matchday 1 was Shakhtar's first away success in four games against the Belgian side. They have earned two draws and a win in their three home games against Club Brugge.

• In their last meeting on Ukrainian soil, Mircea Lucescu's Shakhtar beat Trond Sollied's Club Brugge 4-1 on 11 August 2004. The teams were:-
Shakhtar: Laštuvka, Barcauan, Tymoshchuk, Matuzalem, Vukić (Srna*, 78), Vorobey, Stoican, Aghahowa* (Duljaj*, 78), Lewandowski*, Raţ*, Marica (Brandão, 86).
Club Brugge: Butina, Simons, Rozenhal, Van der Heyden, Clement, Verheyen (Stoica, 80), Engelbert, Čeh (Sæternes, 80), Balaban, Špilár, Lange (Simões, 36).

*currently at the club

• Dany Verlinden, Club Brugge's No1 in the teams' first two ties (in 1995 and 2002), remains at the club as a goalkeeping coach.

Match background
• Shakhtar remain the most prolific scorers in the group stage after scoring 14 goals, with Matchday 4's 2-0 win at Toulouse FC ending a run of three European games in which they scored four times.

• The Ukrainian outfit's only defeat in nine competitive European outings this season was a 1-0 loss to FC Barcelona in the UEFA Super Cup. However, they were also dumped out of the UEFA Champions League in the third qualifying round by FC Timişoara on away goals after draws in both legs.

Team facts
• Shakhtar are coached by the hugely experienced Lucescu, a 74-times capped former Romania striker who spent the bulk of his playing career with FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti. He won Romanian titles as a coach with both Dinamo and FC Rapid Bucureşti plus Turkish championships with Galatasaray AŞ (2001/02) and Beşiktaş JK (2002/03). Since joining Shakhtar, he has won three Ukrainian Premier League crowns and, of course, the final edition of the UEFA Cup last season.

• Former Roda JC and PSV Eindhoven winger Adrie Koster replaced Jacky Mathijssen as Club Brugge coach in April. The former Dutch international (three caps) held the reins at a number of smaller Eredivisie sides before briefly becoming AFC Ajax coach in October 2007.

• Shakhtar share the best disciplinary record in the competition alongside FK Ventspils, with just two yellow cards each over the first four matchdays.

• Shakhtar's Luiz Adriano is one of six players currently topping the UEFA Europa League top scorers standings with four goals along with Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Club Bilbao), Óscar Cardozo (SL Benfica), Alexander Frei (FC Basel 1893) and Gervinho (LOSC Lille Metropole).

• Club Brugge host Toulouse on Matchday 6, with Shakhtar visiting Partizan on the same day, 16 December.