Maccabi Haifa and Shakhter head for the exit

Maccabi Haifa FC and FC Shakhter Karagandy's UEFA Europa League adventures are coming to an end with a final Group L meeting on matchday six.

Previous meetings
• The sides drew 2-2 on matchday two in what was Shakhter's first encounter with Israeli opposition. Andrei Finonchenko and Yevgeni Tarasov put the home side ahead, but substitutes Hen Ezra and Alon Turgeman struck back after the interval.

• Maccabi Haifa previously met Shakhter's domestic rivals FC Aktobe in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, drawing 0-0 away before winning 4-3 back in Israel.

• Shakhter sporting director Ulugbek Asanbayev played both games for Aktobe, coming on as a substitute in Haifa after Aktobe had squandered a 3-0 lead established inside the first 15 minutes.

• Including those matches, only five games have been played between Kazakh and Israeli clubs in UEFA club competition; Kazakh sides are unbeaten at home (W1 D2) but have lost both of their games in Israel.

Match background
• This is Maccabi's third attempt at this group stage. They reached the round of 16 on their UEFA Cup group stage debut in 2006/07 but did not advance to the knockout stages in 2011/12.

• Shakhter came within 90 minutes of reaching the UEFA Champions League group stage, only to let slip a 2-0 first-leg advantage in the play-offs at Celtic FC. They nonetheless received the substantial consolation prize of a first UEFA Europa League group stage campaign.

• Shakhter have yet to win a UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League away game, with their overall away record in 11 UEFA club competition games an unedifying W2 D1 L8.

Team facts
• Maccabi Haifa are the most fouled side in the group stage, with their opponents being penalised 87 times in the first five matchdays.

• Shakhter are the first Kazakh side to have reached a UEFA club competition group stage, and the most easterly club to reach this stage.

• The distance between Shakhter's home town and that of the most westerly group stage contenders, Estoril Praia, is 6,358km – just over one sixth the circumference of earth.

• Maccabi midfielder Avihay Yadin played two games against Kazakh opposition during his time at Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC; his side lost 1-0 at Aktobe then salvaged their 2010/11 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie with a 3-1 win in Israel.

• Maccabi goalkeeper Bojan Šaranov and Shakhter defender Aleksandar Simčević started their careers playing together at OFK Beograd in their native Serbia.

Coach information
• Israel's most capped player, with 94 international appearances, former defender Arik Benado has been coach of Maccabi since November 2012, having won seven of his nine domestic titles with the club – the other two coming during a spell at Beitar Jerusalem FC. After retiring at the end of 2010/11, Benado returned as a youth coach to the club that his father Shlomo had also played for, before being given the first-team job.

• A Kazakh title winner in his first two seasons with Shakhter, 2011 and 2012, Russian-born Viktor Kumykov had his career as a goalkeeper cut short by injury when he was 24. He turned to coaching and led home-town club PFC Spartak Nalchik in Russia before embarking on a series of roles in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Visiting museums is one of his favourite pastimes.