Valencia v Athletic background

Valencia CF will hope to end a run of disappointments in two-legged all-Spanish ties in UEFA competition as they welcome Athletic Club in their UEFA Europa League round of 16 decider.

Previous meetings
• Raúl García scored the only goal for Athletic as they prevailed in the sides' maiden UEFA meeting in the first leg.

• The teams have met 174 times in the Liga and Copa del Rey: Valencia are 68-65 up in terms of victories, though Athletic won the most recent encounter 3-0 at Mestalla on Sunday 28 February.

• The clubs' last knockout competition tie came in 1967, Valencia triumphing 2-1 in the Copa del Rey final. Their most recent two-legged affair was in the 1961/62 Spanish Cup quarter-finals: they drew the first leg in Bilbao 2-2 before Valencia edged the return 1-0.

• Valencia's 16 European fixtures against Spanish opposition have ended W7 D3 L6 (W5 D1 L1 at home – W2 D2 L4 away). They succumbed 3-0 to Real Madrid CF in the 2000 UEFA Champions League final in Paris, and have lost their last three all-Spanish two-legged UEFA ties – two of them on away goals.

• Athletic's four European games against Liga sides have ended W2 D1 L1 – comprising two wins at home, an away draw at FC Barcelona, and a 3-0 loss to Club Atlético de Madrid in the 2012 UEFA Europa League final in Bucharest.

Form guide
• Valencia were shaky at home in the UEFA Champions League this season, but they have not lost in seven UEFA Europa League home fixtures (W5 D2), scoring 14 goals in the course of the most recent three.

• Athletic are on a run of three straight wins on the road in the UEFA Europa League, with Aritz Aduriz scoring their last three UEFA away goals.

• Valencia ventured from group stage to semi-finals in their most recent UEFA Europa League campaign, in 2013/14. They won the UEFA Cup in 2004, overcoming Olympique de Marseille 2-0 in the Gothenburg final.

• Athletic are two-time UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League final losers: Juventus beat them on away goals after a 2-2 aggregate draw in 1977, and they also went down 3-0 to Atlético Madrid in the 2012 decider. This is their first round of 16 appearance since that campaign.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Bilbao to Valencia is just under 500km, from the Mediterranean coast to the shores of the Atlantic.

• Athletic's Aduriz is the top scorer in this season's UEFA Europa League with seven goals; among the teams still in the running, Tottenham Hotspur FC's Erik Lamela is his closest challenger with six.

• Aduriz represented Valencia from 2010–12, leaving to rejoin Athletic at the end of his second Mestalla campaign, where he was largely used as a reserve.

• Athletic are one of two clubs to have made it all the way from the third qualifying round to the round of 16 this term, along with Borussia Dortmund.

The coaches
• Hired as Valencia coach in December, Gary Neville was working as a pundit and as an assistant coach with the England national team. He lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy twice and won eight Premier League titles during his time as a Manchester United FC defender.

• Neville never played in a UEFA Europa League game. The last of his two UEFA Cup appearances came in September 1995 – a 0-0 draw at SC Rotor Volgograd. He made his continental debut in another UEFA Cup tie, playing three minutes of United's 0-0 draw against FC Torpedo Moskva in September 1992.

• Ernesto Valverde took charge of Athletic for a second time in June 2013. As a player, he enjoyed the most stable period of his career in Bilbao and promptly returned to the club after retiring, including as head coach from 2003 to 2005. Subsequently, he landed three Greek titles with Olympiacos and coached Villarreal CF and Valencia.

• Valverde's spell as Valencia coach lasted from December 2012 to the end of the 2012/13 season, and ended with his side finishing fifth in the table – regarded as quite an achievement in a turbulent period at the club.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Valencia's record in four European penalty shoot-outs is W2 L2:
W 5-4 N v Arsenal FC (1979/80 European Cup Winners' Cup final)
L 5-4 N v FC Bayern München (2000/01 UEFA Champions League final)
W 5-4 A v Celtic FC (2001/02 UEFA Cup third round)
L 4-3 A v FC Steaua Bucureşti (2004/05 UEFA Cup round of 32)

• Athletic lost their only previous UEFA penalty shoot-out:
L 5-3 H v CFR 1907 Cluj (2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup second round)