Metalist look to avoid Salzburg catastrophe

FC Metalist Kharkiv won 4-0 at FC Salzburg to leave the Austrian side chasing a largely theoretical chance of a UEFA Europa League round of 16 encounter with FC Rubin Kazan or Olympiacos FC.

• Taison put Metalist ahead inside the first minute in Salzburg, with Jonathan Cristaldo (37 & 41) and Marko Dević (90) completing a rout that matched Salzburg's worst home loss in European football, 4-0 against Parma FC in the first leg of a 2003/04 UEFA Cup second round tie.

Previous meetings
• The clubs have been paired for the first time in UEFA competition.

• Metalist's four games against Austrian teams have ended W3 D1 L1 (W1 D0 L1 at home). They beat FK Austria Wien 2-1 away and 4-1 at home in this season's UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Prior to this term, Salzburg's only experience of Ukrainian opposition was a loss to FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the third qualifying round of the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League, winning the first leg 1-0 at home but going down 3-1 in Donetsk.

Match background
• Salzburg must win by a margin of at least four goals to have a chance of progressing. They have done so only once away from home in UEFA competition, beating FC Nistru Otaci of Moldova 6-2 in a UEFA Intertoto Cup second round meeting on 1 July 2000.

• Metalist are unbeaten in nine UEFA Europa League games this season, recording six wins and three draws. They drew their first two European home matches of 2011/12, but won the next two convincingly, scoring seven goals in the process.

• The Ukrainian outfit have reached the round of 32 for the third time in four seasons; they beat UC Sampdoria in 2008/09 before bowing out to FC Dynamo Kyiv in the next round and last term they lost out to Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

• Salzburg last competed in the round of 32 in 2009/10, when they were eliminated by R. Standard de Liège. They failed to reach the knockout phase after competing in the 2010/11 group stage.

• Salzburg have won three of their six away games in Europe this season, and have scored a healthy 14 goals on the road.

Team facts
• Metalist are now the highest scoring side in this season's UEFA Europa League with 19 goals.

• Metalist coach Myron Markevich is a keen student of the game − he has made trips to study Fabio Capello, Christoph Daum and Carlo Ancelotti − and is also an able pianist. Having been in charge of Metalist since 2005, he was named Ukraine coach on his 59th birthday in February 2010 but stepped down that August to focus solely on his club duties.

• Dutchman Ricardo Moniz is in charge at Salzburg, having stepped up from a role as skills coach to replace Huub Stevens following his countryman's dismissal in April. Moniz's only previous experience as a head coach came in a brief caretaker role at Hamburger SV at the end of 2009/10, but he has worked as a specialist trainer at Feyenoord, Grasshopper-Club, PSV Eindhoven and Tottenham Hotspur FC.

Round of 16
• The winners of this tie will take on FC Rubin Kazan or Olympiacos FC in the round of 16 on 8 and 15 March, playing the first leg at home.

• Salzburg have met neither of their potential opponents in UEFA competition.

• Metalist have never come across Rubin, but beat Olympiacos 1-0 at home in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage, Edmar scoring the 88th-minute winner in Kharkiv.

Competition statistics
• An updated version of the UEFA Europa League Statistics Handbook is available here:
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=1750416.html