Dnipro hoping history repeats against PSV

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk will look to get one over on PSV Eindhoven again in the UEFA Europa League as the sides meet in Group F, 27 years on from their first encounter.

Previous meetings
• Dnipro got the better of a PSV side coached by Jan Reker in their only previous meetings, with Gennadiy Litovchenko's goal in the second leg swinging a 1985/86 UEFA Cup second-round tie decisively in the favour of Volodymyr Emets' side following a 2-2 draw in Eindhoven.

• The teams for the first leg in Eindhoven on 23 October 1985 were:
PSV: Van Breukelen, Gerets, Stevens, Brandts, Heintze (Van Rooij 71), Lokhoff, Valke, Van de Kerkhof, McDonald, Van der Gijp, Thoresen.
Dnipro: Krakovskiy, Bashkirov, Vyshnevskiy, Puchkov, Lysenko, Schurschin (Kudritskiy 83), Kuznetsov, Litovchenko, Sorokalet, Protasov, Taran (Lyutyi 66).

• The teams for Dnipro's 1-0 win at home on 6 November 1985 were:
Dnipro: Krakovskiy, Bashkirov, Vyshnevskiy, Puchkov, Lysenko, Schurschin (Kudritskiy 70), Kuznetsov, Litovchenko, Sorokalet, Protasov, Taran (Lyutyi 57).
PSV: Van Breukelen, Gerets, Stevens, Van der Gijp, Brandts, Lokhoff (Van Rooij 57), Valke, Van de Kerkhof, McDonald, Heintze, Thoresen.

• PSV goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen would gain dramatic revenge for that defeat; he was on the winning side against Dnipro's Oleh Protasov and Litovchenko in the final of the 1988 UEFA European Championship, in which the Netherlands beat the Soviet Union 2-0.

• Protasov would go on to coach Dnipro; PSV's Huub Stevens and Erik Gerets would later lead the Eindhoven club, while team-mate Ernie Brandts served as youth coach and assistant boss.

Match background
• Dnipro have played four games against Dutch sides in total, including those meetings with PSV, with the overall record W2 D1 L1 (W1 D0 L1 at home – W1 D1 L0 in the Netherlands).

• This is Dnipro's third UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League group stage campaign, and they have been drawn against a Dutch side in all of them; they won 2-1 at FC Utrecht in 2004/05, going on to reach the round of 32, but lost to AZ Alkmaar by the same margin at home the following season and failed to reach the knockout phase.

• PSV's ten games against Ukrainian sides have ended W4 D3 L3 (W2 D2 L1 at home – W2 D1 L2 in Ukraine). In their three visits to Ukraine since they last met Dnipro, they have recorded a draw and two victories, including a 2-0 win at FC Metalist Kharkiv in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Dnipro have lost only one of their last nine European home games (1-0 against KKS Lech Poznań in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League play-offs), recording five wins and three draws during that run.

• PSV competed in the last three UEFA Europa League group stages, reaching the knockout phase each time.

• The Boeren come into the group stage on the back of a 14-0 aggregate play-off defeat of FK Zeta (5-0 away, 9-0 at home). They have won five of their last seven European away games, with that run also including a draw and a defeat.

Team facts
• Dnipro coach Juande Ramos has a 100% record in the group stage of the competition having steered Sevilla FC (twice) and Tottenham Hotspur FC through to the knockout stages in his three attempts. However, he may remember that PSV denied him the chance of a third successive UEFA Cup, eliminating his Spurs side on penalties after trading 1-0 away wins in the 2007/08 round of 16.

• That 2007/08 title was eventually won by an FC Zenit St Petersburg side coached by Ramos's opposite number at PSV, Dick Advocaat.

• Ramos famously won the UEFA Cup in successive seasons with Sevilla in 2005/06 and 2006/07, with the one-time lower-league midfielder going on to win the English League Cup at Tottenham and then take charge of Real Madrid CF and (for just 47 days) PFC CSKA Moskva. He has been in command at Dnipro since October 2010.

• Advocaat took over for a second spell as PSV coach in the summer, having won a league title and a Dutch Cup in his first spell from 1995-98. Once a journeyman midfielder, 'The Little General' has since won two Scottish doubles with Rangers FC, and a league title and a UEFA Cup with Zenit as well as coaching the Dutch, South Korean, Belgian and Russian national teams.