Maccabi Tel-Aviv v Zenit background

Maccabi Tel-Aviv's perfect record of four victories from as many European home games this term will be put to the test when they host Zenit in UEFA Europa League Group D.

Previous meetings
• This is the clubs' first meeting in UEFA competition and neither team has played a side from their opponents' country.

Form guide
• Maccabi have won all four of their European home matches this season: 3-0, 2-1, 2-1, 2-1.

• Maccabi and Qäbälä are the only teams who have made it from the first qualifying round to the group stage in the current UEFA Europa League.

• Maccabi have qualified for the round of 32 in one of their two previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns, 2013/14.

• UEFA Cup winners in 2008, Zenit have progressed in three of their four previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns. In 2010/11 they won all six group games.

Links and trivia
• The journey from St Petersburg to Tel Aviv is around 3,100km.

The coaches
• Maccabi's Georgian coach Shota Arveladze scored an impressive 32 goals in 64 UEFA club competition games as a player, lifting league titles with Ajax, Rangers and Trabzonspor. He is in his first term in Israel having spent the last five years coaching in Turkey.

• Mircea Lucescu took charge of Zenit this summer, the 71-year-old Romanian ending a 12-year spell at Shakhtar Donetsk in which he picked up eight Ukrainian titles and the 2008/09 UEFA Cup. He previously won Turkish championships with Beşiktaş and Galatasaray.

• Lucescu is the most experienced coach in the 2016/17 competition; this will be his 215th UEFA club competition match.