Kuban back in the running as Swansea call

After snatching a 1-1 draw at Swansea City AFC on matchday three, FC Kuban Krasnodar can get their UEFA Europa League campaign back on track with a return-leg victory.

Previous meetings
• Michu put Swansea ahead on 68 minutes when the sides met for the first time on matchday three, but former Premier League star Djibril Cissé earned Kuban a first Group A point with a late penalty.

• It was Kuban's first game under their new Belarusian coach Viktor Goncharenko, their first encounter with Premier League opponents and Swansea's maiden tie against a Russian club.

• Swansea's arch-rivals Cardiff City AFC came out on top in the only previous UEFA club encounters between sides from Wales and Russia. The Bluebirds and FC Torpedo Moskva traded 1-0 home wins in the 1967/68 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals, with Cardiff winning the tie 1-0 in a replay in Augsburg, Germany.

Match background
• Kuban kicked off their maiden European campaign with four straight wins in qualifying, eliminating Motherwell FC and Feyenoord on their way to the group stage. However, they lost their opening two Group A games, 2-0 at FC St Gallen and then 2-0 at home against Valencia CF.

• Prior to this season, Swansea had not played in Europe since the 1991/92 European Cup Winners' Cup, when they were beaten 10-1 on aggregate by AS Monaco FC in the first round. Back then, they qualified as Welsh Cup holders.

• Before triumphing 3-0 at Valencia on matchday one, Swansea had not tasted victory in six European away games (D1 L5) since a 5-0 win at Sliema Wanderers FC in a November 1982 European Cup Winners' Cup tie.

Team facts
• Kuban striker Cissé is well known in England, having played in the Premier League for Liverpool FC (2004-06), Sunderland AFC (2008-09) and Queens Park Rangers FC (2012-13). His only encounter with Swansea prior to matchday three was a humiliating 5-0 home defeat for QPR against Michael Laudrup's side on the first day of the 2012/13 season.

• Swansea midfielder Pablo Hernández and Kuban central defender Ángel Dealbert were team-mates at Valencia from 2009-12, earning three successive third-place Liga finishes.

• Swansea's Belgian international winger Roland Lamah and Kuban's Senegalese striker Ibrahima Baldé played together at CA Osasuna in 2011/12.

• Kuban are one of four sides in the group stage who are disputing their first season in European competition along with Wigan Athletic FC, CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu and Estoril Praia.

• Swansea took 24 free-kicks over the first three matchdays – more than any other club in this season's group stage.

Coach information
• Kuban parted company with coach Dorinel Munteanu on 12 October, the Romanian paying for a slow start in Group A and a run of one win in six Russian Premier League matches.

• Viktor Goncharenko answered Kuban's call to end a six-year stay with FC BATE Borisov, where he won five Belarusian titles and steered his side into the UEFA Champions League group stage three times – also becoming, at the age of 31, the youngest ever coach in Europe's premier competition. Before that, Goncharenko first turned to management after his career as a defender with BATE was ended by injury aged 25.

• Michael Laudrup's first season in south Wales ended with Swansea winning the first major English trophy in their history – the 2012/13 League Cup. The playmaker's career haul included the 1991/92 European Champion Clubs' Cup with FC Barcelona and seven league titles: one apiece with Juventus, Real Madrid CF and AFC Ajax, and four with Barça. As a coach, he won a Danish title with Brøndby IF and took unfashionable Getafe CF to the 2007/08 UEFA Cup quarter-finals.