Chornomorets purring as PSV call

FC Chornomorets Odesa kicked off UEFA Europa League Group B with a victory at GNK Dinamo Zagreb on matchday one and will look to keep the momentum going as a chastened PSV Eindhoven head east.

Previous meetings
• This is the sides' first UEFA club competition meeting and Chornomorets' first encounter with Dutch opponents.

• PSV's 12 previous encounters with Ukrainian teams stand at W4 D3 L5 (W2 D2 L2 at home – W2 D1 L3 in Ukraine). Most recently, they lost home and away to FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in last season's UEFA Europa League group stage.

Match background
• This is Chornomorets' first UEFA group stage campaign, and their eighth game since entering the competition in the second qualifying round. Their longest previous European campaign was a six-match voyage to the second round of the 1995/96 UEFA Cup.

• Chornomorets have won all three of their European home games this season, and are unbeaten in five at home in continental competition (W4 D1) since a 1-0 loss to Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup first round.

• PSV are the only side to have competed in every edition of the UEFA Europa League group stage since the competition's inception in 2009/10, missing out on the round of 32 for the first time last season when they finished behind FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and SSC Napoli in Group F.

• PSV kicked off Group B with a 2-0 home loss to PFC Ludogorets Razgrad – a result which matched their two previous worst home losses in the competition: to ACF Fiorentina in the 2007/08 quarter-finals, and to Dundee United FC in the 1982/83 first round.

Team facts
• PSV are one of five clubs in this season's group stage to have won this competition before (1978), along with Valencia CF (2004), Eintracht Frankfurt (1980) and two-time winners Sevilla FC (2006, 2007) and Tottenham Hotspur FC (1972, 1984). PSV are the only side involved on matchday one to have also won the European Champion Clubs' Cup, in 1988.

• This will be PSV's 38th game in the UEFA Europa League, matching the appearance record held jointly by Sporting Clube de Portugal and two-time winners Club Atlético de Madrid.

Coach information
• Chornomorets coach since November 2010, Roman Grygorchuk was a successful striker in his native Ukraine, also playing in Austria, Poland and Russia before going from the pitch to the bench in Latvia. He won three Latvian titles as FK Ventspils coach but then opted to return to Ukraine. In Odessa, he won promotion to the top division in his first season in charge, while a sixth-place finish in 2012/13 opened the door to Europe.

• Hired in the summer of 2013 to coach the club he served so successfully as a player, Phillip Cocu had spent several years preparing, working with the senior national team and PSV's youth teams and briefly taking caretaker command of the PSV first XI in 2012. Capped 101 times for the Netherlands, he won four Dutch titles with PSV either side of a lengthy spell at FC Barcelona, peaking with the 1998/99 Liga triumph.