Fiorentina's Dnipro summit meeting

ACF Fiorentina are bidding to hold onto top spot in UEFA Europa League Group E as they meet their only remaining rivals, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, for a fourth time.

• Both sides are through to the round of 32, but if Dnipro win they will take first place, which guarantees a home tie in the second leg of their first knockout round tie.

Previous meetings
• Fiorentina won 2-1 in Ukraine on matchday two. Gonzalo Rodríguez and Yevhen Seleznyov traded second-half penalties, before Massimo Ambrosini headed in a 73rd-minute winner.

• Aged 36 years and 127 days, Ambrosini became the tournament's fourth oldest goalscorer with that goal: the record belongs to Czech midfielder Pavel Horváth, at 37 years and 214 days.

• The clubs previously met in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup first round, when Roberto Mancini's Fiorentina beat Mykola Fedorenko's Dnipro 2-1 in Florence after a 0-0 draw in Ukraine.

• The teams for their previous meeting in Florence on 27 September 2001, were:
Fiorentina: Manninger, Adani, Di Livio (Benin 79), Moretti, González (Morfeo 64), Chiesa (Mijatović 82), Nuno Gomes, Amoroso, Tarozzi, Vanoli, Baronio.
Dnipro: Medin, Poklonskiy, Shershun, Zadorozhny, Shelayev (Slabyshev 84), Maksymyuk (Zubchenko 49), Valyayev, Poltavets, Geraschenko, Grytsay, Galdeanu (Mazar 69).

• In total, Fiorentina's seven games against Ukrainian clubs stand at W4 D3 L0 (W2 D1 L0 at home – W2 D2 L0 in Ukraine).

• Dnipro also faced Italian opponents in last season's group stage, beating SSC Napoli 3-1 at home but losing 4-2 in Naples. Thus their overall record against Serie A sides is W1 D1 L3 (W1 D1 L1 at home – W0 D0 L2 in Italy).

Match background
• Fiorentina have won their last five home games in UEFA club competition group stages.

• Dnipro have won all three of their continental away fixtures this season.

• This is Fiorentina's first appearance in the group stage since they reached the semi-finals of the 2007/08 UEFA Cup, though they subsequently appeared in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2008/09 and 2009/10.

• 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.

Team facts
• Dnipro's Czech defender Ondřej Mazuch spent two seasons at Fiorentina from 2007-09 but did not make any senior Serie A appearances.

• Fiorentina boast Ukrainian talent in the form of midfielder Olexandr Yakovenko, who started his career at FC Metalist Kharkiv before leaving home, initially for Belgium, in 2005.

• Brazilian forward Ryder Matos scored within a minute of making his debut for the club as a substitute in Fiorentina's 3-0 win against FC Paços de Ferreira on matchday one.

• Dnipro were the top scorers in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League group stage with 16 goals.

Coach information
• Fiorentina coach since June 2012, Vincenzo Montella is still best remembered as a striker for AS Roma, where he was known as L'Aeroplanino (the Little Aeroplane) because of his modest stature and trademark goal celebration. He won the 2000/01 Serie A title and two Coppa Italias with Roma before moving on to coach their youth team. After holding the reins at Roma and Calcio Catania, he led Fiorentina to a fourth-place finish in his first season in charge.

• 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.

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