Hapoel hope to turn up heat on Rubin

Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC have it all to do as they await the home leg of their UEFA Europa League round of 32 tie with Russian champions FC Rubin Kazan, having lost 3-0 amid -14C temperatures in the opener in Tatarstan.

• Two first-half goals from Aleksandr Bukharov (14, 23) caught Tel-Aviv cold even though kick-off was brought forward two hours because of sub-zero conditions, and Sergei Semak completed the victory with a 69th-minute strike.

Previous meetings
• The opener was the sides' first competitive meeting and also Rubin's first game against Israeli opponents. Hapoel's sole experience of Russian opposition was a 2001/02 UEFA Cup third-round tie against FC Lokomotiv Moskva which they won 3-1 on aggregate, prevailing 2-1 at home and 1-0 in Moscow.

• Hapoel assistant coach Yossi Abuksis played in the 2-1 home success.

Match background
• This is Rubin's first spring tie in UEFA club competition. They moved into the UEFA Europa League round of 32 following a third-place finish in UEFA Champions League Group F.

• Rubin's record in their eight away games since making their continental debut in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup reads W4 D0 L4. They won 2-1 at FC Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League group stage, but lost their other two away fixtures.

• This is only the second time that Hapoel have still been involved in UEFA club competition following the winter break. The first occasion followed that 2001/02 UEFA Cup victory against Lokomotiv, the Israeli side defeating Parma FC 2-1 on aggregate in the fourth round before losing to AC Milan by the same margin in the quarter-finals.

• Tel-Aviv are unbeaten in their last five European games at Bloomfield Stadium, and have won their last three, beating Celtic FC, SK Rapid Wien and Hamburger SV in the group stage.

Team facts
• Hapoel's Zurab Menteshashvili spent the first half of the 2003 season with FC Alania Vladikavkaz and the second part of the 2006 campaign with FC Shinnik Yaroslavl, who were relegated that season.

• Lasha Salukvadze is a team-mate of Menteshashvili for Georgia.

• Israel and Russia have met eight times since the break-up of the former Soviet Union, Israel winning three games to Russia's two. Most recently they met in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying, drawing 1-1 in Moscow – a game which featured Hapoel's Walid Badir – before Israel won the return 2-1 in Tel-Aviv.

• Hapoel's next goal will be their 100th in UEFA club competition.

• The winners of this tie will face either Villarreal CF and VfL Wolfsburg in the round of 16 on 11 and 18 March, playing the first leg at home.

Penalties
• Neither Rubin or Hapoel have been involved in a European penalty shoot-out before.

Rubin
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: Cristian Ansaldi, Rafał Murawski, Sergei Semak
Players added to squad: Ilie Cebanu, Hasan Kabze, Aleksandr Orekhov, Igor Portnyagin
Players removed from squad: Alejandro Dominguez, Sergei Kozko, Nukri Revishvili

Hapoel
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: Avihay Yadin
Players added to squad: Daniël de Ridder, Mor Shushan
Players removed from squad: Samuel Yeboah, Michael Zandberg, Nemanja Vučićević, Rami Duani