St-Étienne v Dnipro background

AS Saint-Étienne will look to build on a 1-0 Group G victory in Ukraine as they take on FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk for the fourth time in the last two UEFA Europa League seasons.

Previous meetings
• Romain Hamouma's low finish just before the break earned St-Étienne three points when the teams met on 22 October.

• Dnipro drew 0-0 in France last term and then won 1-0 in Kyiv, Artem Fedetskiy scoring the only goal. That matchday six triumph put Dnipro into the round of 32 and confirmed St-Étienne as the bottom side in the section.

• The teams for that encounter in France on 2 October 2014 were:
St-Étienne: Ruffier, Clément, Gradel, Cohade (Corgnet 75), Van Wolfswinkel, Lemoine, Monnet-Paquet, Perrin, Sall, Tabanou, Clerc.
Dnipro: Boyko, Mazuch, Kravchenko, Kankava (Shakhov 80), Kalinić (Konoplyanka 56), Strinić, Zozulya (Seleznyov 73), Gama, Douglas, Fedetskiy, Politylo.

Form guide
• St-Étienne have drawn their last five UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League group stage home games.

• Dnipro also lost 1-0 at home on matchday three of last season's UEFA Europa League group stage, but went on to beat their opponents – Qarabağ FK – in the return fixture.

• With four points, Dnipro have three more than they did going into matchday four last term – when they went on to reach the final.

• St-Étienne made it through the UEFA Cup group stage at the first attempt in 2008/09 but missed the cut last season in their first UEFA Europa League group stage tilt.

• Dnipro have negotiated four of their previous five UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, including the last three.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Dnipropetrovsk to Saint-Etienne is around 2,350km.

• The game is taking place the day after Dnipro defender Anderson Pico's 27th birthday.

• The first instalment of this double-header was Dnipro's 100th UEFA Europa League fixture; those games have ended W46 D22 L32.

• Dnipro midfielders Jon Jairo Ruiz (LOSC Lille) and Léo Matos (Olympique de Marseille) have played in France.

• Dnipro's Ruslan Rotan and Roman Zozulya were involved as France beat Ukraine in the November 2013 play-offs for the FIFA World Cup finals. Ukraine won 2-0 at home but lost the return leg 3-0 in Saint-Denis.

The coaches
• St-Étienne coach since 2009, Christophe Galtier led Les Verts to French League Cup success in 2012/13. A defender, he started his playing career at home-town club Marseille. He returned to OM as a coach and worked as assistant to Alain Perrin at St-Étienne before getting the senior job.

• Dnipro coach Myron Markevych led his side to the 2015 UEFA Europa League final in his first season at the helm. The one-time midfielder enjoyed success at home and in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League in charge of an exciting FC Metalist Kharkiv squad. He was briefly Ukraine boss in 2010.