Villarreal have the edge as Leverkusen visit

Villarreal CF welcome Bayer 04 Leverkusen for their UEFA Europa League round of 16 decider, having earned a superb 3-2 away win in the opening fixture in Germany.

• Michal Kadlec's fine 33rd-minute opener at the BayArena rewarded a strong first-half display from Leverkusen, but Villarreal's Giuseppe Rossi sent the teams in level at the break. Nilmar scored in the 70th minute within seconds of replacing Rossi, only for Leverkusen to equalise almost straight away through Gonzalo Castro. There was late drama, however, as Nilmar struck again deep into added time.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition.

• Villarreal's five previous games against German sides have ended W3 D1 L1 (W1 D1 L0 at home). VfL Wolfsburg eliminated them from last season's UEFA Europa League in the round of 32.

• Leverkusen's 22 UEFA games against Spanish opponents have ended W6 D5 L11 (W2 D2 L6 in Spain). The Werkself won their only major European trophy to date by beating RCD Espanyol on penalties in the two-legged 1988 UEFA Cup final, but lost the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League showpiece 2-1 against another Spanish side, Real Madrid CF, in Glasgow.

Match background
• Prior to the first leg, Leverkusen were unbeaten in ten UEFA Europa League games this season (all of their European fixtures under Jupp Heynckes) and 11 in total since a 4-1 home defeat by FC Zenit St Petersburg in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

• Villarreal have won all five of their UEFA Europa League home games this season, conceding just twice at El Madrigal in the process.

• Leverkusen are unbeaten in their last six European away matches, recording four wins and two draws, and have not conceded in their last three fixtures on their travels.

Team facts
• Liverpool FC won the UEFA Cup three times (in 1973, 1976 and 2001) and are thus the most successful side left in this season's competition, though PSV Eindhoven (1978), Leverkusen (1988), AFC Ajax (1992), FC Porto (2003), PFC CSKA Moskva (2005) and Zenit (2008) have also won it.

• Rossi's first-leg goal put him level with FC Porto's Falcao as the leading scorer in the UEFA Europa League this season with seven goals each. CSKA Moskva's Tomáš Necid is their closest rival with six.

• Villarreal defender Joan Capdevila faced Leverkusen with RC Deportivo La Coruña in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League second group stage, with Michael Ballack scoring in each game as the German side won 3-0 at home and 3-1 away en route to meeting Madrid in the final.

• The two players met again in the final of UEFA EURO 2008, with Capdevila – and Villarreal team-mates Marcos Senna, Carlos Marchena and Santi Cazorla – in the Spain side that beat Ballack's Germany 1-0 in Vienna on 29 June 2008. Leverkusen's René Adler and Simon Rolfes were unused substitutes in that game.

• Capdevila then came up against Leverkusen's Arturo Vidal (in Spain's 2-1 win against Chile), Tranquillo Barnetta and Eren Derdiyok (in Spain's 1-0 defeat by Switzerland) at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

• Leverkusen coach Heynckes faced Villarreal four times as coach of Athletic Club in the 2001/02 season. In the league, his side drew 0-0 at home and lost 5-2 at El Madrigal, but he had more success in the Copa del Rey, winning both quarter-final legs to go through 3-0 on aggregate.

Penalties
• Villarreal have won both of their UEFA club competition penalty shoot-outs, beating Torino FC (4-3 at home) and Club Atlético de Madrid (3-1 away) in UEFA Intertoto Cup games in 2002 and 2004 respectively.

• Leverkusen beat Espanyol 3-2 on penalties at the BayArena to win the 1988 UEFA Cup but lost their only other shoot-out, 5-3 at FC Wacker Innsbruck in the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup.