Dynamo Kyiv v Steaua background

FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Steaua Bucureşti will lock horns fresh from matching club record results in their opening UEFA Europa League Group J games, with plenty of history between these two European giants.

Form guide
• Steaua have lost only one of their five UEFA meetings with Dynamo, and remain unbeaten against their Group J rivals in Kyiv (W1 D1). Indeed, they have yet to lose in Ukraine (W2 D1).

• In the sides' most notable previous meeting, Anghel Iordanescu's Steaua beat Valeriy Lobanovskiy's Dynamo 1-0 in the 1986 UEFA Super Cup in Monaco, Gheorghe Hagi scoring the only goal.

• The teams for that game on 24 February 1987 were:
Steaua: Stângaciu, Iovan, Bumbescu, Belodedici, Bărbulescu, Bălan, Lăcătuş, Bölöni, Hagi (Balint 84), Stoica (Majearu 89), Piţurcă.
Dynamo: Chanov, Bal, Baltacha, Kuznetsov, Demianenko, Evtushenko, Yakovenko, Rats, Zavarov (Morozov 77), Belanov (Mykhailychenko 50), Blokhin.

• When Steaua beat Dynamo 4-1 in Kyiv in the UEFA Champions League group stage on 13 September 2006, current Steaua assistant coach Nicolae Dică scored two of Steaua's goals, while current Dynamo coach Serhiy Rebrov was on target for Dynamo.

Trivia and links
• Steaua's 6-0 win against Aalborg BK on matchday one matched their best previous European result – a 6-0 defeat of BSC Young Boys in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup on 3 October 1979.

• Claudiu Keșerü's 12-minute hat-trick in that game was the fastest in UEFA Europa League history (Liverpool FC's Steven Gerrard had held the record with a 13-minute treble against SSC Napoli in 2010/11).

• It was also the first UEFA Europa League match (group stage to final) in which a team had managed to score six goals.

• Dynamo's 3-0 win at Rio Ave FC on matchday one matched the margin of their biggest previous away wins in this competition (both 4-1 victories).

• Dynamo are competing in this group stage for a fourth time, having only once – in 2011/12 – failed to make it through to the round of 32.

The coaches
• Dynamo coach Serhiy Rebrov formed a deadly attacking partnership with Andriy Shevchenko for the Bilo-Syni, though his goals dried up somewhat after moving abroad. Following retirement in 2009, Rebrov took a job with Dynamo's youth team, but became first team coach in May 2014 after a successful caretaker spell.

• Steaua coach Constantin Gâlcă was capped 68 times as a midfielder and played in Spain with RCD Mallorca, RCD Espanyol and Villarreal CF among others after making his name at Steaua. He took charge of his old club in June 2014 following a spell working as Romania's Under-17 coach.