Rapid next up for in-form Metalist

SK Rapid Wien will look to avoid a miserable end to a trying UEFA Europa League campaign as they take on FC Metalist Kharkiv in a bottom-meets-top clash in Group K.

Group K permutations
• Metalist are through as group winners due to their superior head-to-head over Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

• Leverkusen are through as runners-up.

• Rosenborg BK and Rapid are out.

Previous meetings
• Metalist won 2-0 when the sides first met on matchday two, substitute Edmar heading in on 66 minutes and Cleiton Xavier hitting a second 14 minutes later, with Rapid's Guido Burgstaller dismissed in added time for a lunge on Cristian Villagra.

• Rapid's record in seven matches against Ukrainian opposition is W3 D0 L4 (W2 D0 L1 at home – W1 D0 L3 in Ukraine). Rapid coach Peter Schöttel played in three of those games – two wins and a defeat, all against FC Dynamo Kyiv.

• Metalist's record in seven games against Austrian clubs – all of them under current coach Myron Markevich – is W5 D1 L1 (W3 D0 L1 in Kharkiv – W2 D1 L0 in Austria).

• Metalist played two Austrian sides in last season's UEFA Europa League, winning all four games: they beat Rapid's neighbours FK Austria Wien 2-1 away and 4-1 at home in the group stage and demolished FC Salzburg in the round of 32, winning 4-0 away and 4-1 at home.

Match background
• Rapid have the worst defensive record in the group stage, with 14 goals conceded, and are the only side yet to pick up a point in this season's competition.

• Rapid have also matched PFC CSKA Sofia's unenviable UEFA Europa League record of eight successive group stage defeats.

• They have not won in seven group stage home games – a draw and six defeats – since a 3-0 win against Hamburger SV in the opening matchday of the 2009/10 competition. If they fail to beat Metalist, it will be their ninth successive UEFA Europa League game (group stage to final) without a win, which would equal the competition record.

• By contrast, Metalist are yet to lose an away game in the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League group stage, recording six wins and four draws.

• This is Rapid's third campaign in the group stage of this competition, and they have yet to make it through to the knockout phase.

Team facts
• This is Rapid's 100th UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League game; their previous 99 ended W37 D16 L46.

• Eight of Metalist's nine group stage goals this season have come after the break, five of them between the 76th minute and the final whistle.

• Rapid defender Mario Sonnleitner was on the winning side in Metalist's only defeat against an Austrian side – SK Sturm Graz's 1-0 win in Kharkiv in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League play-offs.

• Rapid coach Schöttel served the club as a defender from 1986-2002, winning three titles and two Austrian Cups as well as earning a place in the club's Team of the Century in 1999. After retiring, the one-time team captain coached the club's amateur squad and then managed SC Wiener Neustadt before returning to take charge of Rapid in 2011.

• Metalist coach Markevich is a keen student of the game – he has made trips to study Fabio Capello, Christoph Daum and Carlo Ancelotti – and is also an able pianist. Having been in charge of Metalist since 2005, he was named Ukraine coach on his 59th birthday in February 2010 but stepped down that August to focus solely on his club duties.