Dnipro primed for Paços Ferreira

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk will look to keep up the pace at the top of UEFA Europa League Group E as FC Paços de Ferreira make a first trip to Ukraine on matchday four.

Previous meetings
• The teams' encounter on matchday three was Paços' first meeting with Ukrainian opponents and one they may prefer to put behind them: their 2-0 loss was the club's heaviest home defeat in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League.

• Dnipro's only previous encounters with a Portuguese side came a generation ago when they lost 1-0 away and 3-0 at home against SL Benfica in the quarter-finals of the 1989/90 European Champion Clubs' Cup.

Match background
• This is Dnipro's fourth group stage campaign; in 2004/05 they reached the round of 32, losing to FK Partizan. They failed to reach the last 32 in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup but breezed through last season only to lose out to FC Basel 1893 in the first knockout round.

• Dnipro's 2-1 home loss to ACF Fiorentina on matchday two was their first defeat in eight European home games under Juande Ramos, after they had won six of the first seven.

• In just their third season in European football, Paços opened their Group E account on matchday two with a 1-1 draw at home against CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu, a result which ended a five-game losing streak in Europe. Before that, they succumbed 3-0 at Fiorentina on matchday one.

• Paços remain a low-scoring side; their 4-2 loss to FC Zenit in this season's UEFA Champions League play-off second leg remains the only European game in which they have registered more than once. They have scored five times in their 11 European fixtures to date.

Team facts
• Dnipro coach Juande Ramos won the UEFA Cup twice as Sevilla FC coach, in 2006 and 2007, and is one of four coaches in the group stage to have had his hands on the trophy before. PAOK FC's Huub Stevens, who won it as a player (PSV Eindhoven, 1978) and a coach (FC Schalke 04, 1997), AZ Alkmaar's Dick Advocaat (FC Zenit, 2008) and Tottenham Hotspur FC manager André Villas-Boas (FC Porto, 2011) are the others.

• Dnipro were the top scorers in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League group stage with 16 goals. They will need to score at a rate of four goals a game from now on to match that tally.

• Dnipro boast Portuguese talent in the form of midfielder Bruno Gama, who represented FC Porto, SC Braga, Vitória FC and Rio Ave FC. He joined from RC Deportivo La Coruña in the summer.

• Paços defender Ricardo and midfielder André Leão played alongside Dnipro's Brazilian forward Matheus during the spring of 2007 when the later was on loan at SC Beira-Mar.

Coach information
• Dnipro coach since October 2010, Juande Ramos led Sevilla FC to back-to-back UEFA Cup successes in 2005/06 and 2006/07, before short and less successful spells in charge of Tottenham Hotspur FC, Real Madrid CF and PFC CSKA Moskva. A midfielder in the lower leagues in his native Spain, he worked his way up as a coach, taking over at Sevilla following a decent spell at Málaga CF in 2003/04, which included a celebrated 5-1 win against FC Barcelona.

• Sérgio Gaminho had been listed as Paços coach for their European games, but Costinha was picking the team, until the former FC Porto midfielder resigned on 28 October after a 3-1 home defeat by fellow UEFA Europa League contenders Vitória SC left his side bottom of the Portuguese Liga.

• Henrique Calisto has come in for his fourth spell as Paços coach, having previously been in charge from 1996-97, 1998-2000 and 2011-12. Once a right-back, he moved into coaching in his 20s, initially at Boavista FC in 1980, and has since coached a host of Portuguese clubs. From 2001-11, he was in Asia, coaching clubs in Vietnam and Thailand, as well as the Vietnamese national team.