Dynamo aim for No1 against Sheriff

FC Dynamo Kyiv will look to secure top billing in UEFA Europa League Group E as they take on an FC Sheriff side eager to avoid finishing at the foot of the section.

• Dynamo's 4-1 Matchday 5 win at FC BATE Borisov confirmed their progress, and due to a superior head-to-head record, they can only finish second if BATE get a better result at AZ Alkmaar than the Ukrainian side can manage at home against the Moldovan champions.

Previous meetings
• The sides met for the first time on Matchday 2, with Dynamo's first encounter against a Moldovan club ending disastrously; a fortunate Aleksandr Erokhin opener and a Jymmy França penalty gave Sheriff a 2-0 win in Tiraspol.

• It was the first Moldovan success in 11 UEFA club competition games between teams from the two former Soviet republics.

• Having tendered his resignation after the 2-2 Matchday 1 draw against BATE, Valeri Gazzaev once more offered to quit as Dynamo boss in the aftermath of that loss: this time he was allowed to leave.

• Sheriff had met Dynamo's Ukrainian arch-rivals FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. The teams drew 0-0 in Tiraspol, but the Moldovan champions lost the return leg 2-0 in Donetsk.

Match background
• Dynamo's 4-1 Matchday 5 success at BATE was their most emphatic victory away from home in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League.

• Dynamo have won all three of their Group E games since losing at Sheriff, and are unbeaten in four home games this season – two wins and two draws.

• Sheriff have gone ten games – three draws and seven defeats – without winning away from home in Europe since a 1-0 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round victory at FC International Turku on 15 July 2009.

Team facts
• Gazzaev was replaced as Dynamo coach by his assistant, Oleh Luzhny, with the former Dynamo and Arsenal FC defender still in charge on a temporary basis, having previously spent a brief spell in sole command in 2007 following József Szabó's departure.

• Sheriff coach Andrei Sosnitski took over at the helm following the departure of his former boss and fellow Belarusian Leonid Kuchuk, midway through the 2009/10 season, but it was soon business as usual with the club winning another domestic double.

• Initially a trainee at FC Dinamo Minsk, Sosnitski later played for FC Alania Vladikavkaz, FC Uralmash Ekaterinburg, FC Chernomorets Novorossiysk and FC Dinamo Brest, where he spent the majority of his playing career. On hanging up his boots, he started his life as a coach at FC Slavia Mozyr before returning to Dinamo Brest.