Tottenham primed for Ramos's Dnipro

An emotional return to White Hart Lane is in store for Juande Ramos with his FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk side 1-0 up in their UEFA Europa League tie against his old team, Tottenham Hotspur FC.

• Ramos took charge of the English club in October 2007 and won the League Cup in that first season, but was dismissed after just over 12 months in charge with his side having taken just two points from their opening eight league games.

Previous meetings
• The teams met for the first time in UEFA competition in the first leg, when Yevhen Konoplyanka's 81st-minute penalty separated the sides. Defeat ended an eight-game European winning streak – and a ten-game unbeaten continental run – for Spurs.

• Spurs' only previous experience of Ukrainian opponents came in a 2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32 tie, which they lost 3-1 on aggregate to eventual winners FC Shakhtar Donetsk, drawing 1-1 at White Hart Lane after a 2-0 defeat in Ukraine when Dnipro's Yevhen Seleznyov came off the bench to open the scoring.

• Dnipro's four games against English sides have ended W2 D0 L2 (W0 D0 L2 away). They have lost both previous matches in England 3-0, at Middlesbrough FC in 2005 and Fulham FC six years later.

Match background
• Tottenham (1972, 1984) are one of four previous UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League winners to have made it through the group stage along with Sevilla FC (2006, 2007), Eintracht Frankfurt (1980) and Valencia CF (2004). Five more former winners have now moved into the competition from the UEFA Champions League group stage: SSC Napoli (1989), Shakhtar (2009), AFC Ajax (1992), FC Porto (2003, 2011) and final hosts Juventus (1977, 1990, 1993).

• FC Salzburg and Tottenham were the highest scorers in the group stage with 15 goals apiece. Spurs, PFC Ludogorets Razgrad and Real Betis Balompié boasted the meanest defences in the group stage, each conceding just two goals.

• Tottenham and Salzburg were the only clubs that came through the group stage with 100% records. Only three other sides have won all six of their group matches since the advent of the UEFA Europa League: Salzburg (2009/10), FC Zenit (2010/11) and RSC Anderlecht (2011/12).

• Dnipro have reached the round of 32 for the third time since the advent of the UEFA Cup group stage in 2004/05, but have yet to go beyond this phase. They lost to FK Partizan that first season and to FC Basel 1893 last term.

• Dnipro won their first three European away games this season before going down 2-1 at ACF Fiorentina in their final group stage fixture.

• Dnipro's first-leg success was their first victory in the spring phase of a UEFA competition, with their previous ten attempts having ended D5 L5.

Team facts
• Spurs' Jermain Defoe – who is leaving the club in late February for Toronto FC – and Trabzonspor AŞ's Olcan Adın were the group stage's top scorers with five goals each. With 22 UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League goals, Defoe is 11th on the all-time leaderboard alongside Dennis Bergkamp, Martin Chivers, Jürgen Klinsmann, Óscar Cardozo and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

• Emmanuel Adebayor celebrated his 30th birthday on the eve of the match.

• Aaron Lennon and Hugo Lloris' next appearances in UEFA club competition will be their 50th.

• Dnipro goalkeeper Alexandru Vlad and Tottenham defender Vlad Chiricheş were team-mates at FC Internaţional Curtea de Argeş in 2008/09 and at FC Pandurii Târgu Jiu three years later.

• Jan Lastůvka played in England with Fulham FC, Blackburn Rovers FC and West Ham United FC.

• Nikola Kalinić joined the club in 2011 after spending two seasons in England with Blackburn.

• Ukraine and Italy are the most represented nations in the round of 32 with four teams each.

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

• Tottenham goalkeeper Brad Friedel became the UEFA Europa League's oldest participant with his appearance against FC Sheriff on matchday four. He displaced another keeper, FC Twente's Sander Boschker, as he took to the field aged 42 years and 173 days – 140 days older than Boschker. He was 42 years and 278 days old when he faced Dnipro in the first leg.

Coach information
• Tottenham dismissed manager André Villas-Boas after the end of the group stage. The club's former midfielder Tim Sherwood stepped up to take temporary charge, later accepting an 18-month contract to lead the north London side until 2015. A Premier League winner with Blackburn in 1994/95, the three-times capped England midfielder had been on Spurs' coaching staff since 2008.

• Dnipro coach since October 2010, Ramos led Sevilla to back-to-back UEFA Cup successes in 2005/06 and 2006/07 before short and less successful spells in charge of Tottenham, 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 is one of five coaches in the round of 32 to have led a side to victory in this competition before. PAOK FC's Huub Stevens, who won it as a player (PSV Eindhoven, 1978) and a coach (FC Schalke 04, 1997), AZ Alkmaar boss Dick Advocaat (FC Zenit, 2008), Shakhtar's Mircea Lucescu (Shakhtar 2009) and SSC Napoli's Rafael Benítez (Valencia CF, 2004 & Chelsea FC, 2013) are the others.

Shoot-out record
• Spurs' record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L2:
lost 4-1 (away) v FC Basel 1893, 2012/13 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals
lost 6-5 (away) v PSV Eindhoven, 2006/07 UEFA Cup round of 16
won 4-3 (home) v RSC Anderlecht, 1983/84 UEFA Cup final second leg

• Dnipro lost their only previous UEFA shoot-out 5-3 at home to FC Girondins de Bordeaux in the 1984/85 European Champion Clubs' Cup quarter-finals

Round of 16
• The winning side will take on PAOK FC or SL Benfica in the round of 16, playing the first leg at home.

• Spurs drew 0-0 at PAOK then succumbed 2-1 at home in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage. They lost 4-3 on aggregate to Benfica in the 1961/62 European Cup semi-finals, Benfica going on to beat Real Madrid 5-3 in the final in Amsterdam.

• Dnipro have never met PAOK before, but lost 4-0 on aggregate to eventual runners-up Benfica in the quarter-finals of the 1989/90 European Champion Clubs' Cup.