Unirea dreaming of giant-killing

FC Unirea Urziceni can feel proud to have come away from Liverpool FC with a 1-0 defeat in their UEFA Europa League round of 32 opener, but reaching the round of 16 remains a tall order for the Romanian champions.

• Davig Ngog (81) scored the only goal of the game just as it seemed Unirea's tactics would bear fruit. Defender Bruno Fernandes admitted: "If you'd told me it would be only 1-0 here against Liverpool, I'd say it was a good result, but after what I saw and what our team produced in terms of defensive work and sacrifice, 0-0 would be a good result so I am disappointed."

Previous meetings
• While Unirea had never faced English opposition prior to the first leg, this will be the 11th time Liverpool have met a Romanian team. Ominously for the hosts, the Reds have lost just one of their ten games against sides from Romania in UEFA's club competitions – a 3-1 defeat at FC Petrolul Ploiesti in the 1966/67 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round. Their overall record reads W7 D2 L1 (W3 D1 L1 in Romania).

Match background
• Liverpool won the UEFA Cup three times but last appeared in the competition in the 2003/04 season, losing to Olympique de Marseille in the fourth round.

• The Reds have lost just one of their last nine European away games, going down 2-0 at ACF Fiorentina in this season's UEFA Champions League group stage.

• In only their second European campaign, Unirea have made it to the spring stages of a UEFA club competition for the first time.

• Unirea have won just one of their four European home games to date, but are unbeaten in three continental matches in Romania since a 2-0 loss to Hamburger SV in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup first round.

Team facts 
• This is the only last-32 tie which involves two sides eliminated from this season's UEFA Champions League group stage as third-placed finishers.

• Dan Petrescu stepped down as coach of Unirea during the winter break to take up a new post in Russia with FC Kuban Krasnodar. Israeli coach Roni Levy was named as his replacement.

• Levy faced Liverpool before with his former club Maccabi Haifa FC. They travelled to Liverpool for a 2006/07 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round first leg, taking the lead but succumbing 2-1 with Mark González scoring the 87th-minute winner. A 1-1 draw in the second leg, played on neutral territory in Kyiv, meant Liverpool edged through 3-2 on aggregate.

• Of the current Liverpool squad, Pepe Reina, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Fábio Aurélio and Daniel Agger played in the course of that tie.

• Levy and Rafael Benítez also met when Haifa took on Valencia CF in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup second round. The Israeli side earned a useful 0-0 draw at Mestalla but came unstuck in another second leg played at a neutral venue, going down 4-0 at De Kuip in Rotterdam.

• Levy and Liverpool's Israel midfielder Yossi Benayoun are also reasonably well acquainted. Levy was coach of Maccabi Haifa's youth sides during Benayoun's time as a player at the club, and he took command of the first team in a caretaker role in 2000.

• Levy coached Benayoun as Maccabi lost the Israeli State Cup semi-final 2-1 on penalties to Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC, with Benayoun missing his side's fourth spot kick. The midfielder had left for Real Racing Club by the time Levy took the job on a permanent basis in 2003.

• With Petrescu having taken his backroom staff with him to Kuban, Levy will be assisted by Gabriel Caramarin and Eugen Nae, both of whom have recently retired from professional football.

• The winners in this tie will face the victors of the tie between LOSC Lille Métropole and Fenerbahçe SK in the round of 16 on 11 and 18 March, playing the second leg at home.

Penalties
• Unirea have never been involved in a European penalty shoot-out.

• Liverpool have won all three of their European penalty shoot-outs: 4-2 v AS Roma in the 1983/84 European Champion Clubs' Cup final, 3-2 v AC Milan in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League final and 4-1 v Chelsea FC in the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League semi-finals.

Liverpool
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: none
Players added to squad: Nabil El Zhar, Philipp Degen, Stephen Darby, Steven Irwin, Alexander Kacaniklic, Robert Threlfall
Players removed from squad: Andrea Dossena, Andriy Voronin

Unirea
Suspended: Pablo Brandán
Misses next match if booked: Iulian Apostol, Marius Ioan Bilaşco, George Galamaz, Ricardo Vilana
Players added to squad: Daniel Munteanu, Laurentiu Marinescu
Players removed from squad: Tiberiu Bălan, Dacian Şerban Varga