Palermo fighting to hang on as Sparta visit

US Città di Palermo’s UEFA Europa League future hangs on their Group F game against AC Sparta Praha, with the Czech champions closing in on a place in the round of 32.

• Palermo must win if they are to escape early elimination. Sparta will be through if they avoid defeat.

Previous meetings
• Goals from Bony Wilfried, Jiří Kladrubský and Václav Kadlec helped Sparta secure a 3-2 victory when these sides met for the first time in Prague on Matchday 1.

• Palermo's five games against Czech teams have ended W2 D0 L3 (W1 D0 L1 at home).

• Sparta have played 19 games against Italian sides with the record W3 D7 L9. They are yet to win in nine games in Italy, with their away record reading W0 D2 L7.

• Palermo's last European campaign was ended by a Czech side, with FK Mladá Boleslav eliminating them from the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round 4-2 on penalties after trading 1-0 away wins. Sparta midfielder Marek Matějovský played in both legs for Mladá Boleslav.

Match background
• Palermo have conceded three goals in each of their last two games in Group F.

• Sparta have scored three times in three of their four Group F matches, with the exception of a 3-0 loss at PFC CSKA Moskva.

• Sparta are competing in the group stage for the fourth time in five seasons, but have not made it through to the last 32 in that period.

Team facts
• Sparta's 3-1 success at FC Lausanne-Sport last time out matched their best ever margin of victory away from home in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League. They had won 2-0 away on three previous occasions.

• Sparta's Bony Wilfried is the top scorer in the group stage with five goals.

• Wilfried has also had more shots on goal than any player in the first four group stage games; ten in total.

• Palermo's Matteo Darmian celebrates his 21st birthday on the day of the match.

• Hired to replace Walter Zenga as Palermo coach in November 2009, Delio Rossi never rose higher than Serie B as a player, and took a while to make it to the top level as a coach. However, his reputation was cemented with a spell at S.S. Lazio from 2005 to 2009, where he won the Italian Cup in his final season.

• Capped 52 times by Czechoslovakia, former midfielder Jozef Chovanec is Sparta to the core. He served the club for the bulk of his playing career and has continued his association since moving into coaching, taking charge for four separate spells as well as leading 1. FK Příbram, FC Kuban Krasnodar and the Czech Republic national team.

• Sparta defender Tomáš Řepka has experience of Italian football from a three-year spell at ACF Fiorentina (1998-2001).