Chornomorets out to defy Dinamo again

FC Chornomorets Odesa will look to keep their slender chances of reaching the UEFA Europa League round of 32 alive as they play host to eliminated GNK Dinamo Zagreb in Group B.

• Dinamo can finish no higher than third, but Chornomorets could steal a qualifying spot from PSV if they secure the right results in the final two matchdays.

Previous meetings
• Chornomorets' first encounter with Croatian opponents ended in a 2-1 win on matchday one, as goals from Olexiy Antonov (62) and Franck Dja Djedje (65) overturned Dinamo's lead in Zagreb, with Junior Fernándes (42) their man on target.

• Dinamo have now played nine games against Ukrainian sides, though the results have not been encouraging – W0 D2 L7 (W0 D1 L4 at home, W0 D1 L3 in Ukraine).

• No Croatian club has defeated a Ukrainian opponent in the last 11 encounters (W0 D2 L9) since HNK Hajduk Split beat FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the 1985/86 UEFA Cup third round.

Match background
• Chornomorets lost both of their previous Group B home games without scoring.

• This is Chornomorets's first UEFA group stage campaign. This game against Dinamo will be their 11th since entering the competition in the second qualifying round; their previous longest European campaign was a six-game voyage to the second round of the 1995/96 UEFA Cup.

• Dinamo have not scored in Group B since they met Chornomorets on matchday one.

• Dinamo have yet to make it through the group stage of this competition in five attempts. They lost their first five games in last season's UEFA Champions League group stage but were spared a point-less campaign by a 1-1 draw at home against FC Dynamo Kyiv in their final fixture. They had drawn a blank in 2011/12, losing all six of their UEFA Champions League Group D games.

Team facts
• Scorer of his side's equaliser at PFC Ludogorets Razgrad on matchday four, Chornomorets midfielder Olexiy Gai will make his 50th UEFA club competition appearance if he features against Dinamo.

• Dinamo are one of nine domestic champions in this season's group stage along with NK Maribor (Slovenia), FC Sheriff (Moldova), Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC (Israel), PFC Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria), Legia Warszawa (Poland), FC Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan), APOEL FC (Cyprus) and IF Elfsborg (Sweden).

• Chornomorets' Brazilian defender Anderson Miniero and Dinamo's Moroccan forward El Arbi Hillel were team-mates at Portuguese side Vitória SC in 2011/12.

• Dinamo right-back Jerko Leko has experience of Ukrainian football, having first left his current club for FC Dynamo Kyiv for what was a club record €4m in 2002. He won two league titles and three Ukrainian Cups with Dynamo before moving on to AS Monaco FC in 2006.

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-placed finish in 2012/13 opened the door to Europe.

• Dinamo brought an end to Branko Ivanković's third spell as the club's coach ahead of matchday three, with his side having lost four of his eight games since he took charge in September.

• Sporting director Zoran Mamić has been put in charge for the remainder of the year, with Damir Krznar and Igor Cvitanović working as his assistants. Capped six times for Croatia as a defender and defensive midfielder, Mamić started and ended his playing career at Dinamo either side of a long spell in Germany, where he represented, among others, VfL Bochum 1848 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen.