Hamburg face another Belgian barricade

Bruno Labbadia's Hamburger SV will look to edge another round closer to playing in the UEFA Europa League final at their own stadium when they take on an R. Standard de Liège side bidding to end a poor run of form on German soil.

Previous meetings
The sides are meeting for the first time in Europe. Hamburg have played seven games against Belgian clubs, with the record W2 D2 L3 (W1 D1 L1 at home).

• Hamburg beat Standard's rivals RSC Anderlecht 2-0 in the 1976/77 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in Amsterdam, and eliminated the same team in the last round to set up this tie.

• Standard have played 23 games against German sides, with the record W6 D6 L11 (W3 D3 L7 in Germany). They have not won in five matches in Germany since beating VfB Stuttgart 2-0 in the 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup group stage.

Match background
• Hamburg are unbeaten in their last six European home outings (five wins and a draw) since a 1-0 defeat by Randers FC in this season's UEFA Europa League third qualifying round.

• A 3-1 win at Panathinaikos FC in the round of 16 ended a six-game wait for a Standard away victory in Europe. They have averaged exactly a goal a game in their five UEFA club competition away fixtures this season.

• Hamburg last reached the quarter-finals of a major UEFA club competition last term, when they beat Manchester City FC en route to a UEFA Cup semi-final defeat by Bundesliga rivals Werder Bremen.

• Standard's last quarter-final appearance came in 1981/82, when they overcame FC Porto in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup on the way to a 2-1 final loss against FC Barcelona at Camp Nou.

Team facts
• No Standard player has scored more than three times in Europe this season, with Axel Witsel, Igor De Camargo and Milan Jovanović all level on three goals going into the quarter-finals.

• Joris Mathijsen is the only Hamburg player to have featured in all ten of their games since the start of the UEFA Europa League group stage, with the Dutch defender having featured in all 900 minutes of their campaign.

• Marcus Berg is Hamburg's leading scorer in Europe this term with four goals since the start of the group stage. Marcell Jansen is one strike behind him on three.

• Hamburg have played more UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League games than any other side left in the competition: 120.

• HSV's Czech defender David Rozehnal played in Belgium with Club Brugge KV from 2003 to 2005, where he won two domestic league titles and the 2003/04 Belgian Cup.

• Hamburg's Ruud van Nistelrooy never faced Standard with any of his previous clubs, but has come up against Belgium in three friendly games with the Netherlands, featuring in a loss and two draws. He came on as a substitute in a 1-0 home defeat by Belgium in Eindhoven in May 2004 in which Standard's Grégory Dufer was an unused reserve.

• Standard's Witsel and Steven Defour featured in Belgium's 2-0 friendly loss against Germany in Nuremberg in August 2008. Hamburg's Piotr Trochowski was in the starting lineup for Germany while team-mate Marcell Jansen came off the bench late on.

• In a previous spell as Standard coach, Domenico D'Onofrio led the club to two draws – and an away-goals victory – against Germany's VfL Bochum 1848 in the first round of the 2003/04 UEFA Cup.

• Four of the sides in the quarter-finals competed in the UEFA Europa League group stage: SL Benfica, Fulham FC, Hamburg and Valencia CF. The other four transferred from the UEFA Champions League group stage: Club Atlético de Madrid, Liverpool FC, Standard and VfL Wolfsburg.

• By a quirk of the draw, all four quarter-final ties feature one side from the UEFA Champions League group stage and one from the UEFA Europa League.

• The tie concludes in Liege on 8 April. The winners face the victors of the contest between Fulham and Wolfsburg in the semi-finals on 22 and 29 April, playing the first leg at home. Whoever comes through that meeting will be the nominal away team in the final in Hamburg on 12 May.