Sparta Praha v APOEL background

AC Sparta Praha have set club records in past meetings with Cypriot clubs, and have good reason to expect a decent outcome as they take on APOEL FC again in UEFA Europa League Group K.

Previous meetings
• František Straka's Sparta beat Ivan Jovanović's APOEL 4-3 on aggregate in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round.

• The teams for their encounter in Prague, a 2-1 home win on 4 August 2004, were:
Sparta: Blažek, Sivok, Poborský, Michalík (Voříšek 64), Čech, Kováč, Pacanda (Meduna 87), Petráš, Jun (Rezek 72), Homola, Koubský.
APOEL: Morfis, Stojanoski, Okkarides, Vakouftsis, Anexandrou, Georgiou, Satsias, Daskalakis, Charalambides, Ilia (Makridis 46), Michail (Neophytou 46).

• Sparta established records in their only previous games against Cypriot sides: in the 1963/64 European Cup Winners' Cups, they beat Anorthosis Famagusta FC 10-0 at home and 6-0 away – still their most substantial home and away victories in UEFA competition.

• APOEL's only other matches against Czech teams went better than the first ones; they overcame FK Jablonec home and away in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round.

Form guide
• Sparta are unbeaten in their last nine UEFA Europa League group stage home games (W5 D4). In five European fixtures this season they have scored 11 goals and conceded ten.

• APOEL have won only one of their seven continental matches this term: W1 D3 L3. Their 3-0 reverse to FC Schalke 04 on matchday one represents one of their worst home defeats in this competiton: they have now lost at home by three-goal margins four times in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League.

• Sparta have made it through to the knockout phase in two of their six UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, most recently missing the cut last year.

• APOEL failed to survive the group stage on their one preceding appearance, in 2013/14.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Nicosia to Prague is around 2,250km.

• APOEL's Portuguese defender Mário Sérgio can make his 50th UEFA club competition appearance in the Sparta game.

• Sparta's Radoslav Kováč and APOEL's Fernando Cavenaghi played together at FC Spartak Moskva (2005–07).

• APOEL's Valmir Nafiu was a team-mate of Sparta's Kováč and Markus Steinhöfer during his one season at FC Basel 1893, from 2011–12.

• Sparta's Portuguese forward Marco Paixão played in Cyprus with Ethnikos Achnas FC (2012/13).

• APOEL are one of ten domestic champions in this season's group stage, along with KF Skenderbëu (Albania), Qarabağ FK (Azerbaijan), FC Viktoria Plzeň (Czech Republic), FC Midtjylland (Denmark), KKS Lech Poznań (Poland), FK Partizan (Serbia), Celtic FC (Scotland), Molde FK (Norway) and FC Basel 1893 (Switzerland).

The coaches
• Hired as APOEL coach this summer, Temuri Ketsbaia travelled widely as a midfielder and scored 17 goals in 49 international appearances for Georgia. Having coached Anorthosis Famagusta and Olympiacos FC, he was in charge of Georgia from 2009–14.

• Experienced coach Zdeněk Ščasný took over at Sparta in April. Once a defender cum midfielder, he won Czechoslovak titles with FK Dukla Praha and Sparta. As a coach, he steered Sparta to two championships in the 1990s and has also managed abroad in Greece and Hungary.