Sheriff plotting Istanbul exploit

Fenerbahçe SK are already safely through to Friday's UEFA Europa League draw as Group H winners, but FC Sheriff could yet join them if they can pull off a stunning result in Istanbul.

• Two points adrift of second-placed FC Twente, Sheriff need to win to have any hope of progressing but would outstrip the Dutch side on head-to-head record if they finish level on points, with Steve McClaren's men in action at FC Steaua Bucureşti.

Previous meetings
• Fenerbahçe marked their first game against Moldovan opposition by running out 1-0 winners at Sheriff on Matchday 2. Sheriff lost 1-0 to Beşiktaş JK in their only previous game in Turkey, a UEFA Champions League second qualifying round tie on 1 August 2007. They are yet to score in three games against Turkish opposition.

Match background
• A 3-1 win against Steaua on Matchday 4 ended a three-match losing run in UEFA club competition group-stage home fixtures for Fenerbahçe.

• Sheriff have won just four of their 23 UEFA club competition away games, with the sides they beat – Armenia's FC Araks Ararat, Malta's Sliema Wanderers FC, Andorra's FC Ranger's and Finland's FC International Turku – boasting nothing like the same European pedigree as Fenerbahçe.

Team facts
• Sheriff's coach is Leonid Kuchuk from Belarus, who has led the club to the last six of their nine straight Moldovan titles since stepping up from the position of youth-team trainer in January 2004.

• The coach's son, Aleksei, plays up front for Sheriff.

• German coach Christoph Daum this summer returned from 1. FC Köln for a second spell at the Fenerbahçe helm. Celebrated in Germany for earning three Bundesliga runners-up slots with Bayer 04 Leverkusen and two with Köln, he twice coached Fener's local rivals Beşiktaş before claiming two titles in his first spell at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium between 2003 and 2006.

• Daum's best European season to date came in his first spell as Köln coach, when his side reached the semi-finals of the 1989/90 UEFA Cup, losing out to Juventus.

• Fenerbahçe midfielder Ali Bilgin celebrates his 28th birthday on 17 December, the day of the match against Sheriff.