Chelsea on collision course with Rubin

Chelsea FC's bid to complete a clean sweep of major UEFA club titles remains on course, but they have reason to be cautious in the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals as FC Rubin Kazan make a second trip to London.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition.

• Chelsea have won all four of their previous games against Russian sides (W2 D0 L0 at home – W2 D0 L0 away), conceding just once in the process. They won 2-0 against FC Spartak Moskva at the Luzhniki Stadium – the venue for the return leg – in their last visit to Russia in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage.

• Making their debut in the quarter-finals of a major UEFA tournament, Rubin are visiting London for a second time, having lost 1-0 at Tottenham in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage. They won the return fixture in Kazan 1-0.

Match background
• Chelsea are unbeaten in 11 European games at Stamford Bridge (W9 D2) since a 1-0 loss to Manchester United FC in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. They have yet to lose in six UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League home games (W4 D2 L0).

• Rubin have not lost in five European away games this season (W2 D3) and if their pattern of following up away draws with away wins continues, they are set for a victory at Stamford Bridge.

• Food for thought ahead of the second leg: Rubin have lost three times in their last 22 European home games (W10 D9 L3), with all three of those defeats coming in Moscow, where they had not scored in three games until they struck twice in extra time to eliminate Levante UD in the round of 16. They are 18 European games unbeaten in Kazan, including wins in the most recent five, during which they conceded only once.

• Three English teams – Chelsea, Newcastle United FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC – have reached the last eight. In each of the previous two seasons in which a country has taken three clubs to the quarter-finals, one of that number has gone on to win the trophy – FC Porto (Portugal) in 2010/11 and Club Atlético de Madrid (Spain) in 2011/12 – beating opponents from their own country in the final.

• SL Benfica and Chelsea are the only sides left in the competition who transferred from the UEFA Champions League group stage. They will be hoping to emulate the feat of inaugural winners Atlético, who won the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League after entering in the knockout phase

• Chelsea have played fewer UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League games than any other side left in the competition – just 12.

• Chelsea could become the first side to win UEFA's two top club competitions in reverse order in successive seasons.

• They could also become only the fourth side to win all three of UEFA's major club competitions, joining Juventus, AFC Ajax and FC Bayern München. Chelsea won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1970/71 and 1997/98, and the UEFA Champions League last season.

Team facts
• Striker José Rondón is the second highest scorer left in the competition with five goals since the start of the group stage. S.S. Lazio's Libor Kozák tops the leaderboard with eight.

• Rondón and midfielders Pablo Orbaiz and Gökdeniz Karadeniz are the only players who have featured in all ten of Rubin's games since the start of the group stage, although none have been on the pitch for every minute. Gökdeniz is the only player to have started all ten games.

• Chelsea defender David Luiz is in line to make his 50th appearance in UEFA club competition.

• Rubin winger Gökhan Töre was at Chelsea (2009–11). He helped the club's reserve team to win the English title, but never made a senior competitive appearance.

• Chelsea defender John Terry has made 98 appearances in UEFA club competition, and will make it to three figures if he appears in both legs of this tie. Team-mate Frank Lampard (112) has played in more UEFA club competition games than any player left in this season's UEFA Europa League, with Petr Čech and Ashley Cole (both 102) his nearest rivals.

• Rafael Benítez moved into coaching at a young age after injury ended his career as a midfielder, taking charge of youth and reserve teams at Real Madrid CF. He led Valencia CF to two league titles and the 2003/04 UEFA Cup, and then won the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League with Liverpool FC. He coached FC Internazionale Milano briefly in 2010/11 and replaced Roberto Di Matteo as Chelsea manager in November 2012.

• Benítez's most recent UEFA Europa League experience came in 2009/10, when he led Liverpool to the semi-finals before defeat by eventual winners Atlético.

• Benítez has been in charge of 134 UEFA club competition games – more than any other coach in this season's quarter-finals.

• Benítez (Valencia CF 2003/04) and Tottenham Hotspur FC's André Villas-Boas (FC Porto 2010/11) are the only coaches left in the competition who have won the trophy previously.

• Kurban Berdyev has been coach of Rubin since 2001, leading the club to successive Russian titles in 2008 and 2009 and a Russian Cup in 2012. Previously a defender and midfielder in the top Soviet league with SKA Rostov-na-Donu and FC Kairat Almaty, he coached teams in Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan before leading Rubin into Russia's top division.