Slavia Praha v Astana background

Fresh from their first European away win in over a decade, at Maccabi Tel-Aviv on matchday five, Slavia Praha face off against Astana in a Group A decider.

• The victors in Prague will join group winners Villarreal in the round of 32; a draw will suffice for Slavia, who hold a one-point advantage over their visitors from Kazakhstan.

Previous meetings
• The sides met for the first time on matchday two, drawing 1-1 in the Astana Arena. Slavia took an early lead with a first European goal from Cameroonian defender Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui before the hosts levelled at the end of the first half through Croatian midfielder Marin Tomasov.

• That was the first time either club had faced a team from their opponents' country. In the seven meetings between Czech and Kazakh clubs, the former hold the advantage: W3 D3 L1.

Form guide
• Czech champions Slavia have kept a clean sheet in three of their four European home games this season. However, they have scored only twice in their last six European matches at Eden Arena (0-0, 0-3, 1-0, 0-0, 1-0, 0-2).

• Slavia's 2-0 win at Maccabi on matchday five was the club's first victory in 21 UEFA away fixtures (D10 L10) since a 1-0 success at Ajax in a 2007/08 UEFA Champions League qualifier.

• Astana have won just two of their last 18 European away matches (D5 L11), both this season – 1-0 at Spartaks Jūrmala in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round and 1-0 at Maccabi Tel-Aviv on UEFA Europa League matchday four.

• Edged out by APOEL in this season's UEFA Champions League play-offs, Slavia made it through the UEFA Cup group stage in 2005/06, but missed the cut in 2008/09 and also fell short in their only previous UEFA Europa League group campaign (2009/10).

• Beaten 8-4 on aggregate by Celtic in the UEFA Champions League play-offs, Astana are playing group stage football for a third successive season: UEFA Champions League in 2015/16, UEFA Europa League in 2016/17 and 2017/18.

• Astana finished bottom of their section, with five points, in last season's UEFA Europa League, so they have already improved on that performance this term.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Astana to Prague is around 3,900km.

• This is Slavia's 150th UEFA club competition game; it is Astana's 46th.

• Slavia's Ruslan Rotan played for Dnipro in their 2015 UEFA Europa League final defeat by Sevilla; goalkeeper Jan Lastůvka was an unused substitute for the Ukrainian side.

• Astana clinched their fourth successive Kazakh Premier League title on 5 November, finishing one point ahead of perennial rivals Kairat Almaty.

• Astana's last seven goals in this competition have been shared between their two African strikers, Patrick Twumasi (four) and Junior Kabananga (three).

• Slavia's Jan Bořil is available after a one-game ban.

• Suspended from next match if booked: Serikzhan Muzhikov (Astana).

The coaches
• A Czechoslovak league runner-up in 1992/93 as a Slavia midfielder, Jaroslav Šilhavý returned to the club after a 22-year absence in September 2016. Having won the Czech crown as Liberec boss in 2011/12, he triumphed again with Slavia in 2017.

• Hired in June 2014, Stanimir Stoilov led Astana to their fourth successive Kazakh title last month. The former Bulgaria player and coach enjoyed his most fruitful years as a player at Levski Sofia, whom he later guided to two championships – and the 2005/06 UEFA Cup quarter-finals.