Gent v Shakhtar Donetsk background

Gent will look to block Shakhtar's path to the round of 32, the Ukrainian side certain to make it through Group H if they can avoid defeat in Belgium.

• If Gent win – and Konyaspor lose – the Turkish team will be eliminated.

Previous meetings
• Shakhtar won 5-0 when the clubs met for the first time in UEFA competition on matchday three in Ukraine. It was one of the Pitmen's three biggest home victories of all time in UEFA competition, and Gent's heaviest away loss in the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League.

• Gent's sole previous experience of Ukrainian opposition stemmed from the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, where they fell 3-0 away and 3-1 at home against Dynamo Kyiv.

• Shakhtar's record in 11 encounters with Belgian sides is W5 D5 L1 (W2 D2 L1 in Belgium, with wins in their two most recent visits). That lone reverse came in the first of those games – 1-0 at Club Brugge in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in September 1995.

Form guide
• Gent have won all three of their home matches this season.

• Shakhtar are the only team yet to concede in this season's group stage, and their +8 goal difference is the best in the competition so far. Zenit, Shakhtar and Schalke are the only sides entering matchday four with nine points.

• Gent missed the cut in their one past UEFA Europa League group stage, 2010/11.

• Winners in 2009, Shakhtar have advanced through both of their previous UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Gent to Donetsk is about 2,500km, though Shakhtar are playing home fixtures in Lviv, around 1,450km away.

• Shakhtar midfielder Marlos can make his 50th UEFA club competition appearance on matchday four.

• Shakhtar's Darijo Srna has played 141 UEFA club competition games, the highest total of any player in this term's UEFA Europa League. His nearest rival, Manchester United's Zlatan Ibrahimović, has made 130 such outings.

The coaches
• Hein Vanhaezebrouck guided Gent to the Belgian title in 2014/15 and steered them into the UEFA Champions League round of 16 last season. He established his credentials during two periods in the dug-out of home-town club Kortrijk, for whom he had also played.

• Paulo Fonseca took the Shakhtar reins this summer after Mircea Lucescu moved on following 12 years in the post. His Braga team were eliminated by Shakhtar in last spring's UEFA Europa League quarter-finals, but went on to land the Portuguese Cup.