Vorskla v Qarabağ facts

Having finally achieved their first win in the UEFA Europa League proper at the ninth time of asking, 1-0 at Qarabağ on matchday three, Vorskla Poltava will be bidding to complete the double over the champions of Azerbaijan in order to maintain their hopes of qualifying from Group E.

• Qarabağ have yet to score or register a point in the group, losing at Sporting CP (0-2) and at home to Arsenal (0-3) before the defeat in Baku against Vorskla, whose previous two matches had also both ended in defeat – 2-4 in London against Arsenal and 1-2 at home to Sporting.

• Qarabağ will be out if they lose.

Previous meetings
• This is Vorskla's second match in UEFA competition against opposition from Azerbaijan.

• Qarabağ's only previous outings against a Ukrainian club before this season came in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League group stage, when they won 1-0 away to eventual runners-up Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk on matchday three before losing 1-2 at home in the reverse fixture a fortnight later.

Form guide
Vorskla
• Vorskla secured a place in this season's UEFA Europa League group stage by finishing third in the 2017/18 Ukrainian Premier League – their joint-highest ever final placing, matching their achievement in 1996/97, when they qualified for Europe for the first time.

• This is the club's seventh European campaign and their second in the UEFA Europa League group stage. They had to win three qualifying ties to make the grade in 2011/12, including a play-off success against Dinamo Bucureşti, but their six group games yielded just two points and bottom place in a section featuring Standard Liège, Hannover and FC København.

• Vorskla have lost four of their last six European home fixtures, the one win during that sequence – 3-1 against Žilina in the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round – proving in vain after a 0-2 first-leg defeat in Slovakia.

Qarabağ
• Champions of Azerbaijan for the fifth successive year in 2017/18, Qarabağ are also competing in a UEFA group stage for the fifth season running, three appearances in the UEFA Europa League preceding last season's landmark UEFA Champions League adventure. BATE Borisov blocked their route back into that competition this season, in the third qualifying round, but a UEFA Europa League play-off victory against FC Sheriff kept that sequence of group stage appearances going.

• Qarabağ have never extended a European campaign into the spring. Their away record in the UEFA Europa League group stage is W2 D1 L7, the two victories coming against Dnipro in 2014/15 and PAOK in 2016/17 (1-0).

• Qarabağ have scored just two away goals in five European encounters this term but have lost only two of them – the two most recent, against Sheriff (0-1) and Sporting.

Míchel (centre) turns 33 on the day of the game©AFP/Getty Images

Links and trivia 
• Qarabağ's Albanian defender Ansi Agolli joined the club from Ukrainian side Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih in January 2012. Vorskla midfielder Aleksandre Kobakhidze was his Kryvbas team-mate in 2009/10.

• Qarabağ's Spanish midfielder Míchel turns 33 on the day of the game.

• Qarabağ are one of only two teams yet to collect a point or score a goal after three matchdays in this season's UEFA Europa League; Dudelange (Group F) are the other.

The coaches
• A tall centre-forward, Vasyl Sachko played in the Ukrainian top flight for Volyn Lutsk and Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih before moving to Vorskla in 2008. He has been with the Poltava club ever since, four years as a player then two as assistant coach before taking on the head coach role in the summer of 2014. As a result of leading Vorskla to third place in Ukraine in 2017/18, he qualified the club for the UEFA Europa League group stage, of which he had a brief taste as a player in 2011/12.

• Qarabağ coach Gurban Gurbanov is Azerbaijan's highest-scoring international with 12 goals in 64 matches. While he regularly changed club as a player, he celebrated ten years as head coach of Qarabağ in August 2018, during which time he has led the club to five successive national league titles, four Azerbaijani Cups and regular European group stage involvement, including a maiden UEFA Champions League adventure in 2017/18. He has doubled up as the coach of Azerbaijan since November 2017.