Stoke look to forge on against Dynamo

Stoke City FC host FC Dynamo Kyiv in Group E, knowing a point will guarantee them a round of 32 berth, while defeat for the visitors could end their UEFA Europa League campaign.

Previous meetings
• Stoke had the rug pulled from under them as they made their UEFA group stage debut in Kyiv on matchday one, with Ognjen Vukojević scoring the home side's equaliser in second-half added time after Cameron Jerome had given the Premier League club the lead in their first game against Ukrainian opponents.

• Dynamo's 21 games against English opponents have ended W4 D6 L11 (W0 D1 L9 in England). The only time they avoided defeat on English soil came when Serhiy Rebrov struck late to secure a 1-1 draw at Arsenal FC in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League group stage. That was one of only two goals Dynamo scored in England, though they conceded a reasonably modest 16 in those ten games.

Match background
• Stoke have yet to lose in six European home games (five wins and a draw) since they made their continental debut with a 3-1 win against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on 13 September 1972. They have not lost in their last ten European games, home and away (seven wins and three draws); a record that stretches back to a 4-0 loss in the second leg of that tie against Kaiserslautern.

• Dynamo have won only one of their last six European away games, drawing two and losing three.

Team facts
• Stoke are scoring Group E goals with impressive efficiency; eight of their 15 strikes have found the target since the start of the group stage - a hit-rate better than a goal with every two shots.

• Dynamo have scored two of their three Group H goals in second half added-time.

• Stoke's Danish goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen came up against his Dynamo counterpart Olexandr Shovkovskiy in a 1-1 draw between Denmark and Ukraine in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying in Copenhagen. Oleh Gusev featured in the return fixture in Kyiv, which Ukraine won 1-0.

• Stoke striker Peter Crouch and his Dynamo opposite number Andriy Shevchenko both scored as England beat Ukraine 2-1 in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier at Wembley on 1 April 2009.

• Shevchenko played in the Premier League for Chelsea FC from 2006-09, though most of his last season was spent on loan back at AC Milan. He has played in 16 games against English sides in UEFA club competition - four of them as a Chelsea player - with the record W5 D8 L3 (counting AC Milan's penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool FC in the 2005 UEFA Champions League final as a draw). He scored four times in the course of those fixtures.

• Once a midfielder and forward, the vastly experienced Yuri Semin is in his second spell as Dynamo coach, having won the 2008/09 Ukrainian title in his first stint, leading the club to the UEFA Cup semi-finals that year. He made his name in his native Russia with FC Lokomotiv Moskva, winning titles in 2002 and 2004.

• Semin has been in charge for nine games against English sides - four with Lokomotiv and five with Dinamo - with the record W1 D3 L5 (W0 D0 L4 as boss of the away team).

• Stoke's Welsh manager Tony Pulis is making his continental coaching debut this season. Regarded as a miracle worker for leading the Potters back into the Premier League, his only previous involvement in European competition came as a youth player; he featured for Wales as a defender in seven International Youth Tournament games in 1975 and 1976.