Standard out to consolidate Group B lead
Monday, October 3, 2011
Article summary
R. Standard de Liège will look to consolidate their position at the top of Group B while FC Vorskla Poltava travel to Belgium hoping to secure their first points of the campaign.
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R. Standard de Liège will look to strengthen their position at the top of UEFA Europa League Group B as they take on a FC Vorskla Poltava side eager for a first point in the competition.
Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition, in what is Standard's first game against a Ukrainian team.
• Vorskla met Standard's Belgian rivals RSC Anderlecht in the second qualifying round of the 1997/98 UEFA Cup, losing 2-0 away and at home.
Match background
• Standard have lost just once in their last eight European home games, 3-1 to Hamburger SV in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.
• Vorskla lost their opening two Group B games, but prior to their 1-0 defeat at FC København on matchday one, they had won their last three games on the road in Europe.
Team facts
• All three of Standard's group stage goals this season have come after the break – in a 3-0 home victory against FC København on matchday two.
• Exciting Vorskla attacker Roman Bezus has come in for some special attention; he was fouled 11 times in the first two matchdays, joining Sporting Clube de Portugal's Stijn Schaars as the joint most fouled player in the group stage so far.
• Standard's only playing connection with Ukraine is former midfielder Serhiy Kovalenko, who played for the club from 2004 to 2007, scoring five goals in 44 appearances.
• Standard coach José Riga is competing in Europe for the first time. Born in Liege, he previously served as the club's joint-coach, alongside his predecessor Dominique D'Onofrio, from 2003 to 2005. Since then, he has undertaken roles in sole command of RAEC Mons and RCS Visé, before returning to Standard in July 2011.
• Vorskla boss Mykola Pavlov won a Ukrainian title as FC Dynamo Kyiv coach in 1995/96, and guided both FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and FC Illychivets Mariupil in European games.
