Zulte Waregem face daunting Rubin test

FC Rubin Kazan will look to continue their impressive European run at their Centralniy Stadion when SV Zulte Waregem travel further east than ever before in UEFA Europa League Group D.

Previous meetings
• The two teams are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition and this is Rubin's first encounter with Belgian opponents.

• Zulte Waregem's only previous fixtures against Russian opposition saw Francky Dury's side get the better of FC Lokomotiv Moskva in the first round of the 2006/07 UEFA Cup, winning 2-0 at home after a 2-1 defeat in Moscow.

• There have been 37 games between Belgian and Russian sides in UEFA club competition, with the Russian clubs having marginally the better of them with the record W18 D5 L14 (W13 D2 L4 at home - W5 D3 L10 in Belgium).

Match background
• Rubin are competing in a UEFA group stage for the fifth straight season; they transferred from the UEFA Champions League to the UEFA Europa League round of 32 at the end of the autumn in 2009 and 2010 and then made it through the UEFA Europa League group stage in the last two seasons.

• Rubin are on an eight-game winning streak in Europe since losing 3-1 at Chelsea FC in last season's UEFA Europa League quarter-finals.

• Rubin have not lost a European home game in Kazan in 21 matches (W12 D9) since going down 1-0 to Parma FC in the first round of the 2006/07 UEFA Cup, though they have not been as successful on the occasions their fixtures have been switched to Moscow. They have won their last six at the Centralniy Stadion without conceding.

• Zulte Waregem made it through their only previous group stage campaign in 2006/07, bowing out to Newcastle United FC in the round of 32. However, KSV Waregem – who merged with Zultse VV to form Zulte Waregem in 2001 – enjoyed even more European success, reaching the semi-finals of the 1985/86 UEFA Cup before losing out to 1. FC Köln.

• A 2-1 win at APOEL FC in the play-offs ended Zulte Waregem's three-game European losing streak on their travels. However, they have yet to avoid defeat in successive continental away fixtures – or indeed draw a European away match.

Team facts
• Rubin won 5-2 at NK Maribor on matchday one – a result that matched the margin of their biggest ever previous European away successes – two 3-0 wins, most recently at Shamrock Rovers FC in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Rubin and PSV Eindhoven are the only sides to have appeared in all five editions of the UEFA Europa League.

• Kazan is the most easterly city in which Zulte Waregem – or indeed KSV Waregem – will have played a European game. The capital of Tatarstan lies just over 700km east of Moscow.

• Zulte Waregem midfielder Thorgan Hazard can get some useful information on Rubin from his older brother Eden, who played in the home leg of Chelsea's quarter-final tie against Kurban Berdyev's men last season.

• Rubin attacking midfielder Gökdeniz Karadeniz and Zulte Waregem midfielder Karel D'Haene were team-mates at Trabzonspor AŞ from 2003-05, during which time the Black Sea club won the 2003/04 Turkish Cup and twice finished as runners-up in the league.

Coach information
• Now one of the longest serving coaches in Europe, Kurban Berdyev has been in charge of Rubin since 2001, leading the club into the top division for the first time and winning the 2008 and 2009 titles before transforming his team into regular European contenders. Rubin right-back Roman Sharonov said of the famously ascetic Turkmenistan-born coach: "If I thought about football as much as him, I would probably lose my mind."

• Coach Francky Dury returned to Zulte Waregem at the end of 2011, and came close to leading them to a first title last season. A policeman while playing as a midfielder with amateur side Hulste Sport, he coached Zultse VV and became the new side's first coach when they merged with KSV Waregem to become Zulte Waregem in 2001. He finally handed in his police badge in 2007, having steered the club to the top division and won the 2005/06 Belgian Cup.