Shakhter have to pressure PAOK

FC Shakhter Karagandy's maiden UEFA Europa League group stage campaign is destined for an early conclusion unless they can match or better the margin of PAOK FC's victory in the sides' first Group L encounter.

• PAOK and AZ Alkmaar are six points clear of Maccabi Haifa FC and Shakhter in the section; Maccabi Haifa cannot catch PAOK because of their head-to-head record, and Shakhter cannot catch AZ for the same reason.

Previous meetings
• Zvonimir Vukić struck in added time to secure a 2-1 win for PAOK when the sides met for the first time on matchday one. It was PAOK's first meeting with a club from Kazakhstan and Shakhter's first encounter with Greek opponents.

• The only previous men's club competition encounter between Greek and Kazakh clubs came in the 2007 UEFA Intertoto Cup third round when FC Tobol Kostanay won 1-0 home and away against OFI Crete FC.

Match background
• Shakhter are unbeaten in eight European home games (W5 D3) but have yet to secure a first group stage victory.

• 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.

• PAOK extended their UEFA Europa League record of successive away games (excluding qualifying) without defeat to eight (W3 D5) with their 0-0 draw at Maccabi Haifa FC. Their last non-qualifying UEFA Europa League defeat on the road was 1-0 at Villarreal FC on 21 October 2010.

• PAOK replaced FC Metalist Kharkiv in the UEFA Champions League play-offs after the Ukrainian side, who had beaten the Greek side in the third qualifying round, were excluded from Europe. They lost 4-3 on aggregate to FC Schalke 04 but moved into the UEFA Europa League for what is their fourth group stage campaign; they failed to progress in 2005/06 but made it to the round of 32 in 2010/11 and 2011/12.

Team facts
• PAOK defender Nikos Spyropoulos's next European appearance will be his 50th in UEFA club competition, but the 30-year-old has yet to feature in Group L.

• PAOK coach Huub Stevens celebrates his 60th birthday on 29 November, the day after the Shakhter game.

• Shakhter are the first Kazakh side to reach a UEFA club competition group stage, and the most easterly club to have reached this level. The distance between Karaganda and Salonika is just under 4,000km, though PAOK will only need to travel 3,850km since their opponents play their European home games in Astana.

• 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 of the circumference of the Earth.

• PAOK midfielder Kostas Katsouranis scored his first international goal for Greece in a 3-1 FIFA World Cup qualifying victory against Kazakhstan on 17 November 2004.

• PAOK attacker Dimitris Salpingidis has made 65 UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League appearances so far; if he plays against Shakhter, he will join Enzo Scifo in fifth place in the competition's all time appearance rankings. One more appearance after that would put him level with Walid Badier in fourth place.

• Shakhter surrendered their Kazakh title to FC Aktobe ahead of matchday four, but took consolation on 10 November when they beat FC Taraz 1-0 in Astana to win their first Kazakhstan Cup. Sergei Khiznichenko scored the only goal.

Coach information
• 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 then Uzbekistan. Visiting museums is one of his favourite pastimes.

• PAOK coach since June 2013, Huub Stevens won the UEFA Cup as a player with PSV Eindhoven in 1977/78 and as FC Schalke 04 coach in 1996/97. A defender, he spent his best years as a player with PSV, who he later coached. Schalke fans named him as their coach of the century in 1999, and he also coached 1. FC Koln, Hamburger SV and FC Salzburg before embarking on a second, less successful stint with Schalke in 2011.

• Stevens is one of four coaches in the group stage to have had their hands on the trophy before along with FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk's Juande Ramos (Sevilla FC, 2006 and 2007), AZ Alkmaar boss Dick Advocaat (FC Zenit, 2008) and Tottenham Hotspur FC manager André Villas-Boas (FC Porto, 2011).