Hannover safe as Vorskla sign off
Friday, December 2, 2011
Article summary
Hannover 96 are certain to finish second in Group B while FC Vorskla Poltava cannot lift themselves off the foot of the section as their UEFA Europa League campaign concludes in Germany.
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Article body
Hannover 96 lost their first UEFA Europa League game on matchday five and will look to get back to winning ways against FC Vorskla Poltava in Group B.
• Hannover are certain to finish second in the group while Vorskla cannot lift themselves off the foot of the section.
Previous meetings
• Hannover clung on for a 2-1 win when the sides met for the first time on matchday two. Mohammed Abdellaoue (32) and Christian Pander (44) gave them a 2-0 half-time lead, but Vorskla roared into life after the interval and were unlucky not to add to a 50th-minute Oleksiy Kurilov strike.
• It was Vorskla's first European home defeat in over a decade, since a 2-1 UEFA Cup loss to Boavista FC on 14 September 2000.
• The match also brought Hannover's first ever European away win.
Match background
• Hannover remain unbeaten in four European home games (two wins and two draws) but their seven-game unbeaten run in Europe (six of them in this season's UEFA Europa League) ended with a 2-0 loss at R. Standard de Liège last time out.
• They had not lost in Europe since going down 3-1 at SV Werder Bremen on their continental debut, in the first round of the 1992/93 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.
• Vorskla won all three of their away games in qualifying, but have not scored on the road since the start of the group stage, recording a 1-0 loss and a 0-0 draw. The only goal they conceded away in Group B was a penalty.
Team facts
• 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.
• Pavlov's Dnipro were eliminated from the 1993/94 UEFA Cup by a German side, Eintracht Frankfurt; a 1-0 win in Ukraine was not enough to overturn their 2-0 first-leg defeat in Germany.
• Hannover boss Mirko Slomka led the club he had previously served as a player and assistant coach into Europe to a fourth-placed Bundesliga finish in his first season in charge.
• Slomka is competing in the group stage of this competition for the first time, but enjoyed success in the 2005/06 edition. He led FC Schalke 04 from the round of 32 to the semi-finals after replacing Ralf Rangnick as coach following the group phase.
• Vorskla defender Armend Dallku and forward Ahmed Januzi know Hannover's Altin Lala from their time together with the Albanian national team.
• Vorskla take their name from the river that runs through Poltava.
