Zenit v Sevilla background

FC Zenit can take comfort from a good run of recent European home results as they come into their UEFA Europa League quarter-final decider against holders Sevilla FC trailing 2-1.

Previous meetings
• Sevilla's 2-1 win in the first leg was the sides' fifth European meeting: Zenit's record in those games is now W1 D2 L2. Three of those encounters came during Sevilla's triumphant 2005/06 UEFA Cup campaign, when Juande Ramos's lost 2-1 away to Vlastimil Petržela's Zenit in the group stage then beat the Russian side 5-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

• The sides for their last encounter in Russia, on 6 April 2006 – a 1-1 draw in which Zenit's Ivica Križanac and Sevilla's Kepa were sent off – were:
Zenit: Malafeev*, Radimov, Škrtel, Križanac, Mareš, Šírl (Trifonov 78), Kerzhakov*, Hyun (Kozhanov 58), Poškus, Vlasov, Anyukov.
Sevilla: Palop, Navarro*, Castedo, Daniel Alves, Escudé, Luís Fabiano (Kepa 60), Navas, Adriano (Sales 57), Martí, Ocio, Maresca (Renato 70).
*registered to play in this season's quarter-finals

Form guide
• Zenit have won their last three European home games without conceding; Sevilla have won their last two on the road, scoring three goals in each.

• Zenit have won only twice in 15 encounters with Spanish sides, and are without a victory in their last eight games against Liga opponents.

• Sevilla have lifted this trophy every time they have made it to the last eight. Zenit also won the competition the last time they reached this stage, in 2007/08.

Trivia and links
• Sevilla (2006, 2007, 2014) and Zenit (2008) are two of three former UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League winners left in the competition.

• Zenit are the only side of the eight that entered the UEFA Europa League round of 32 from this season's UEFA Champions League group stage to have made it this far.

• Zenit's all-time top scorer Aleksandr Kerzhakov played for Sevilla from 2007–08.

• Sevilla goalkeeper Beto and Zenit forward Hulk were team-mates at FC Porto from 2009–12, winning the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League under current Zenit coach André Villas-Boas.

• Zenit boast Spanish talent in the form of midfielder Javi García, while Ezequiel Garay (Real Madrid CF) and José Rondon (UD Las Palmas, Málaga CF) both have Liga experience.

• Sevilla coach Unai Emery knows Russian football from his time at FC Spartak Moskva in 2012, while centre-back Nicolás Pareja played for the same side from 2010–13.

• Daniel Carriço – who missed the first leg – can become a stand-alone UEFA Europa League record holder in St Petersburg, the Sevilla man having matched Óscar Cardozo's record of 44 appearances in the competition (group stage to final) in the round of 16.

• This year's UEFA Europa League final is in Warsaw, and Sevilla's Grzegorz Krychowiak is one of three Polish players who still have a chance of playing in the decider in their home country, along with Łukasz Teodorczyk (FC Dynamo Kyiv) and Oskar Zawada (VfL Wolfsburg).

The coaches
• Having joined Porto's coaching department in his teens after a debate with the club's then coach Sir Bobby Robson, Zenit's André Villas-Boas assisted José Mourinho and spent a season in charge at A. Académica de Coimbra before winning a Liga, Portuguese Cup and UEFA Europa League treble with Porto in 2010/11. He then coached Chelsea FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC, taking over at Zenit in March 2014.

• Sevilla boss since January 2013, one-time midfielder Unai Emery switched from playing to coaching at Lorca Deportiva CF. Having led UD Almería to the top tier, he coached Valencia CF from 2008 to 2012, with his side regular European contenders during that spell.

• Emery (Sevilla 2014) and Villas Boas (Porto 2011) are among three coaches in the quarter-finals who have won the UEFA Europa League since the competition took on its current incarnation, along with Napoli's Rafael Benítez (Chelsea FC 2013).

Penalty shoot-outs
• Zenit have yet to feature in a penalty shoot-out in UEFA competition.

• Sevilla's record in five UEFA competition penalty shoot-outs is W4 L1 (W2 L0 away):4-3 v PAOK FC (A), 1990/91 UEFA Cup first round
3-1 v RCD Espanyol (N), 2006/07 UEFA Cup final
2-3 v Fenerbahçe SK (H), 2007/08 UEFA Champions League round of 16
4-3 v Real Betis Balompié (A), 2013/14 UEFA Europa League round of 16
4-2 v SL Benfica (N), 2013/14 UEFA Europa League final