Leverkusen v Krasnodar background

After a goalless first leg in Russia, Bayer Leverkusen and Krasnodar lock horns again in north-west Germany, the prize for the victors a return to the UEFA Europa League round of 16, where both clubs have participated in recent seasons.

• Leverkusen cruised through their section, posting 13 points and scoring 16 goals, but poor domestic form resulted in December's dismissal of Heiko Herrlich and his replacement by Peter Bosz, a 2016/17 UEFA Europa League runner-up as coach of Ajax.

• Krasnodar finished runners-up to Sevilla in Group J, losing out on first place only on the head-to-head rule after matching the Spanish club's haul of 12 points.

Previous meetings
• There was little to choose between the clubs in their first meeting, the 0-0 stalemate a first for Krasnodar in 25 European home matches.

• Leverkusen have won four and lost three of their ten matches against Russian opposition. They are unbeaten, however, in their last six, the three most recent having resulted in draws, including two against CSKA Moskva (2-2 home, 1-1 away) in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League group stage. Their home record versus Russian visitors is W2 D1 L1.

• Krasnodar have lost five of their seven matches against German clubs, all in the UEFA Europa League group stage, the only success a 1-0 home victory against Borussia Dortmund in 2015/16, which helped them win the group and reach the round of 32 for the first time. Their three previous trips to Germany have all ended in defeat, the first 1-5 at Wolfsburg in 2014/15 – Krasnodar's heaviest European loss.

Form guide
Leverkusen
• Absent from Europe in 2017/18, for the first time in eight years, Leverkusen booked direct access to the UEFA Europa League group stage by finishing fifth in last season's Bundesliga.

• This is the Rhinelanders' fourth appearance in the UEFA Europa League knockout phase. They also progressed from their group in 2010/11 and 2012/13, and transferred mid-season from the UEFA Champions League in 2015/16.

• Leverkusen have won two of their three previous UEFA Europa League round of 32 ties, beating Metalist Kharkiv in 2010/11 (4-0 away, 2-0 home) and Sporting CP in 2015/16 (1-0 away, 3-1 home) but losing to Benfica in 2012/13 (0-1 home, 1-2 away). They have not reached a European quarter-final since the 2007/08 UEFA Cup.

• The Werkself have drawn six of their last ten European home games (W3 D1) and have lost just once at the BayArena in their last nine UEFA Europa League matches (W5 D3), keeping clean sheets in five of them.

• Leverkusen have won eight of the ten UEFA competition ties in which they have posted an away draw in the first leg and four of the five that have finished 0-0, most recently overcoming Galatasaray in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup round of 32 (5-1 home). They have never lost the home leg after drawing away, their two eliminations having both been on the away goals rule.

Krasnodar
• Since making their European debut in the 2014/15 UEFA Europa League, Krasnodar have qualified for the competition every season since, failing to make the group stage only in 2017/18, when they lost a play-off to Crvena zvezda on away goals. Fourth place in last season's Russian Premier League secured their group stage berth this term.

• Krasnodar were unable to progress from their group at the first attempt, in 2014/15, but succeeded in both of the following two seasons, reaching the round of 32 in 2015/16, when they lost to Sparta Praha (0-1 away, 0-3 home), and the round of 16 in 2016/17 after claiming their first victory in a European knockout phase with a 2-1 aggregate success against Fenerbahçe (1-0 home, 1-1 away).

• They lost two of their three away games in this season's group stage – 1-2 at Standard Liège and 0-3 at Sevilla – but won their opener, 1-0 at Akhisar, to which they added 2-1 home wins against all three opponents.

• The Russian club have yet to win away from home in three springtime European encounters (D1 L2) but have claimed one victory on the road in all four of their UEFA Europa League group campaigns – against Everton (1-0) in 2014/15, Gabala (3-0) in 2015/16, Salzburg (1-0) in 2016/17 and this season at Akhisar.

• Krasnodar have never previously drawn the first home leg of a UEFA tie.

UEFA Europa League squad changes
• Leverkusen
In: Jan Boller
Out: none

• Krasnodar
In: Kristoffer Olsson, Ivan Taranov
Out: Pavel Mamaev,  Tornike Okriashvili, Roman Shishkin, Stefan Strandberg

Links and trivia 
• Leverkusen's Isaac Kiese Thelin and Krasnodar's Uroš Spajić were Belgian title winners at Anderlecht in 2016/17.

• Viktor Claesson (Krasnodar) and Kiese Thelin are Sweden team-mates.

• Between 2013 and 2015 Krasnodar's Cristian Ramírez played in Germany for Fortuna Düsseldorf and Nürnberg.

• Leverkusen lifted the UEFA Cup in 1987/88 and are one of ten former winners of the trophy in this season's knockout phase, along with Sevilla, Internazionale, Chelsea, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit, Valencia, Galatasaray, Napoli and Eintracht Frankfurt.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Leverkusen's record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L2:
3-2 v Espanyol, 1987/88 UEFA Cup final
3-5 v Tirol Innsbruck, 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup quarter-final
2-3 v Atlético Madrid, 2014/15 UEFA Champions League round of 16

• Krasnodar have yet to feature in a UEFA penalty shoot-out.

The coaches
• Peter Bosz was appointed as Leverkusen head coach on 23 December 2018, replacing Heiko Herrlich. The move came a year after he was dismissed just six months into his tenure at Borussia Dortmund. A Dutch title winner as a midfielder with Feyenoord, Bosz began his coaching career in the Netherlands, and after a brief spell in Israel with Maccabi Tel-Aviv returned to take charge of Ajax in May 2016, 12 months later steering the Amsterdam club to the UEFA Europa League final, which they lost 2-0 to Manchester United.

• A Krasnodar man through and through, Murad Musaev made his mark by leading the club's Under-19s to the knockout phase of the 2017/18 UEFA Youth League, where they were only eliminated on penalties by Real Madrid in front of a competition-record crowd. That achievement helped him land the position of caretaker coach to the senior side following Igor Shalimov's dismissal in early April 2018. His position as the club's new head coach was subsequently confirmed during the summer.