Shakhtar Donetsk v Sevilla background

FC Shakhtar Donetsk will look to erase the memory of a fateful defeat from 2007 as they welcome holders Sevilla FC, the Pitmen unbeaten in six UEFA Europa League games.

Previous meetings
• Juande Ramos's Sevilla overcame Shakhtar in dramatic fashion in the round of 16 en route to winning the 2006/07 UEFA Cup. After a 2-2 draw in Spain, Sevilla goalkeeper Andrés Palop scored at the death to make it 2-2 in the return leg, Ernesto Chevantón winning it for the visitors in extra time.

• The teams for that game in Donetsk on 16 March 2007 were:
Shakhtar: Shust, Lewandowski, Chygrynskiy, Kucher*, Shevchuk* (Raţ 44), Gai, Matuzalém (Duljaj 86), Fernandinho, Jádson, Marica, Bielik (Elano 64).
Sevilla: Palop, Navarro (Duda 81), Dani Alves, Escudé, Dragutinović, Hinkel (Chevantón 57), Adriano (Puerta 57), Maresca, Poulsen, Luís Fabiano, Kanouté.
* registered to play for the club in this season's UEFA Europa League

• Shakhtar's 21 games against Spanish sides have ended W4 D5 L12 (W2 D3 L5 at home – W2 D2 L6 in Spain). Those games include a 1-0 loss to FC Barcelona in the 2009 UEFA Super Cup in Monaco.

• Sevilla are unbeaten in five meetings with Ukrainian clubs (W4 D1); they have won both of their previous matches in Ukraine, and most recently beat FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3-2 in last season's UEFA Europa League final in Warsaw.

Form guide
• Of the eight teams that parachuted in from the UEFA Champions League group stage, just Shakhtar and Sevilla remain in contention. Shakhtar are unbeaten in six games (W5 D1 – W2 D1 at home) since entering the competition: Sevilla's record in the same period is W3 D1 L2.

• Sevilla's 2-1 success at Athletic Club in the quarter-finals was their first away win in Europe all season (W1 D1 L4).

• This is the first time Shakhtar have featured in the semi-finals since they won the final edition of the UEFA Cup in 2009.

• Sevilla won the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League for a record fourth time last term – and a second time in succession. No team have won three consecutive editions of a major UEFA competition since FC Bayern München's third straight European Champion Clubs' Cup triumph in 1975/76.

• Sevilla are the first club to contest the UEFA Europa League semi-finals for three seasons running.

• Of the four semi-finalists, only Shakhtar, the last UEFA Cup winners, have never reached this stage of the UEFA Europa League before.

• Sevilla progressed despite their record 11-match winning run at home coming to an end. Their penalty shoot-out success against Athletic was their third in three attempts in the UEFA Europa League (after previous triumphs against Real Betis and Benfica). No other team has ever been involved in more than one UEFA Europa League shoot-out.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Sevilla to Lviv, where Shakhtar are playing their European games, is around 2,750km.

• Sevilla's Adil Rami can make his 50^th UEFA club competition appearance in this game.

• Shakhtar boast the player (Darijo Srna, 134) and the coach (Lucescu, 212) who have appeared in the most UEFA club competition matches of the last-four contenders.

• Sevilla's Daniel Carriço has made more UEFA Europa League appearances (group stage to final) than any other player, 51 in total.

• Sevilla's Ukrainian winger Yevhan Konoplyanka joined from Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk after their defeat in last season's UEFA Europa League final. He did not score in 13 league and cup games against Shakhtar during his time at Dnipro, with his side's record in those matches W2 D6 L5.

• Darijo Srna made his club-record 486th appearance for Shakhtar in the 4-0 quarter-final second-leg win against SC Braga, breaking Mikhail Sokolovskiy's record, which had stood for nearly three decades.

The coaches
• Mircea Lucescu has occupied the Shakhtar helm since 2004, leading the Pitmen to eight Ukrainian championships and five national cups as well as the 2009 UEFA Cup. The one-time striker, 70, has coached in Romania and Italy and landed back-to-back Turkish titles with different clubs in the early 2000s.

• Unai Emery, 44, oversaw Sevilla's successes in the last two editions of the UEFA Europa League, having assumed control in January 2013. The one-time midfielder made his name during a four-year stay at the Valencia helm and briefly coached Spartak Moskva in 2012.

• The second leg of this tie will be Emery's 100th game as a coach in UEFA competition.