Club Brugge eye up Valencia scalp

Valencia CF head into the second leg of their UEFA Europa League round of 32 tie against Club Brugge KV with work to be done, following a 1-0 defeat in Belgium which brought a long unbeaten European run to an end.

• Dorge Kouemaha scored the only goal in Bruges (56), five minutes after David Silva's dismissal had turned the tie in the home side's favour. Defeat in Bruges ended an 18-game unbeaten run in Europe, including all 16 of their previous games under coach Unai Emery.

Previous meetings
• The teams met for the first time last term in the UEFA Cup group stage. Nikola Žigić's headed goal earned Valencia a 1-1 home draw – and, with it, a place in the round of 32 – after Antolin Alcaraz had given the visitors, then coached by Jacky Mathijssen, the lead.

• The teams for that game on 4 December 2008 were:
Valencia: Guaita, Torres, Maduro (Albiol, 64), Marchena, Morientes (Fernandes, 73), Del Horno, Žigić, Helguera, Hernández, Hugo Viana, Jaume (Vicente, 55).
Club Brugge: Stijnen, Ciman, Klukowski, Clement, Daerden, Dirar, Sonck (Akpala, 82), Simaeys, Vargas (Van Heerden, 90), Geraerts, Alcaraz.

Match background
• Club Brugge have played 19 games against Spanish sides and their record reads W5 D6 L8 (W0 D4 L5 in Spain). Valencia's record from eight games against Belgian opponents is W3 D2 L3 (W2 D1 L1 in Valencia).

• Prior to the first leg, Brugge had not won a springtime European fixture since a 1-0 success at home against Debreceni VSC on 26 February 2004 set them up for a narrow UEFA Cup third-round victory by that same scoreline. They lost both legs of the ensuing fourth-round meeting with FC Girondins de Bordeaux that season, and then lost 2-1 in both legs of their 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 32 meeting with AS Roma.

• Valencia were eliminated from last season's round of 32 on away goals following 1-1 and 2-2 draws with FC Dynamo Kyiv.

• Valencia are unbeaten in their last nine European home games (five draws and four wins), but Brugge have lost just once in their last nine UEFA club competition away ties, going down 1-0 at KKS Lech Poznań in this season's UEFA Europa League play-offs.

Team facts 
• Valencia's Dutch international Hedwiges Maduro played under Brugge coach Adrie Koster for a short spell at AFC Ajax (October-December 2007) prior to his mid-season departure for the Mestalla.

• Maduro was a team-mate of Brugge's Wesley Sonck at Ajax in the 2004/05 campaign.

• Sonck does not have happy memories of facing Valencia striker David Villa. In October 2008, it was Villa's 88-minute goal that condemned Belgium to a 2-1 home defeat by Spain in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in which Sonck had given the hosts an early lead. Villa then scored twice in Spain's 5-0 win in the return last September, with Silva also striking twice.

• The winners of this tie face the victors of the contest between FC Twente and Werder Bremen in the round of 16 on 11 and 18 March, playing the first leg at home.

Penalties
• Valencia have been involved in four European penalty shoot-outs, winning two and losing two; they took the 1979/80 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup with a 5-4 defeat of Arsenal FC but lost the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League final by the same margin.

• Club Brugge have won all four of their continental penalty shoot-outs – three at home and one away – overcoming FC Shakhtar Donetsk, BV Borussia Dortmund, Vålerenga IF and KKS Lech Poznań. On all four occasions, four converted penalties were enough.

Club Brugge
Suspended: Jonathan Blondel
Misses next match if booked: Michael Klukowski, Vadis Odjidja
Players added to squad: Peter Van der Heyden, Daan Van Gijseghem, Maxime Lestienne
Players removed from squad: Jeffrey Jared, Koen Daerden

Valencia
Suspended: David Silva
Misses next match if booked: David Albelda, Pablo Hernández, Bruno Saltor
Players added to squad: none
Players removed from squad: Asier del Horno, Miku, Nacho González, Sergio Garabato