Barcelona chase triple crown

Playing in their seventh UEFA Super Cup, FC Barcelona are eyeing a third success in the competition while debutants FC Shakhtar Donetsk hope coach Mircea Lucescu's experience will pay dividends at the Stade Louis II.

Previous UEFA Super Cup appearances

2006: FC Barcelona 0-3 Sevilla FC
(Renato 7, Kanouté 45, Maresca 90p)
25.08.2006, Stade Louis II, Monaco

1997: FC Barcelona 3-1 BV Borussia Dortmund (agg)
FC Barcelona 2-0 BV Borussia Dortmund
(Luis Enrique 8, Rivaldo 60)
08.01.1998, Camp Nou, Barcelona
BV Borussia Dortmund 1-1 FC Barcelona
(Heinrich 64; Giovanni 6)
11.03.1998, Westfalenstadion, Dortmund

1992: Werder Bremen 2-3 FC Barcelona (agg)
Werder Bremen 1-1 FC Barcelona
(Allofs 86; Salinas 37)
10.02.1993 Weserstadion, Bremen
FC Barcelona 2-1 Werder Bremen
(Stoitchkov 30, Goikoetxea 49; Rufer 39p)
10.03.1993, Camp Nou, Barcelona

1989: FC Barcelona 1-2 AC Milan (agg)
FC Barcelona 1-1 AC Milan
(Amor 67; Van Basten 44)
23.11.1989, Camp Nou, Barcelona
AC Milan 1-0 FC Barcelona
(Evani 55)
07.12.1989, Giuseppe Meazza, Milan

1982: FC Barcelona 1-3 Aston Villa FC (agg)
FC Barcelona 1-0 Aston Villa FC
(Marcos Alonso 52)
19.01.1983, Camp Nou, Barcelona
Aston Villa FC 3-0 FC Barcelona (aet)
(Shaw 80, Cowans 100, McNaught 104)
26.01.1983, Villa Park, Birmingham

1979: Nottingham Forest FC 2-1 FC Barcelona (agg)
Nottingham Forest FC 1-0 FC Barcelona
(George 9)
30.01,1980, City Ground, Nottingham
FC Barcelona 1-1 Nottingham Forest FC
(Roberto Carlos 25p; Burns 42)
05.02.1980, Camp Nou, Barcelona

• European champions Barça have appeared in six previous UEFA Super Cup contests, winning two (1992 and 1997) and losing four (1979, 1982, 1989 and 2006).

• Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola played in only one Super Cup fixture, the second leg of the 1992 final (played on 10 March 1993). His side concluded a 3-2 aggregate win against Werder Bremen with a 2-1 home victory, in which the visitors' Oliver Reck was dismissed after 30 minutes.

• Shakhtar have never played in a UEFA Super Cup game, having won their first European tournament last season when they clinched the UEFA Cup.

• Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu has won the tournament before, with his Galatasaray SK side beating Vicente del Bosque's Real Madrid CF 2-1 at the Stade Louis II in the 2000 edition. That was his first UEFA club competition trophy, and prior to last season's UEFA Cup triumph, his only European honour.

• Lucescu is looking to become the sixth coach to win the UEFA Super Cup twice, joining Sir Alex Ferguson (Aberdeen FC, 1983 and Manchester United FC, 1991), Raymond Goethals (RSC Anderlecht, 1976 and 1978), Arrigo Sacchi (AC Milan, 1989 and 1990), Louis van Gaal (AFC Ajax, 1995 and FC Barcelona, 1997) and Carlo Ancelotti (Milan, 2003 and 2007).

• Lucescu returned to the Stade Louis II with Galatasaray for a 2000/01 UEFA Champions League first group stage game, but his side went down 4-2 to AS Monaco FC and he has not been back since.

• While Lucescu has won a Super Cup game in Monaco, Barcelona lost on their only previous attempt, succumbing 3-0 to Sevilla in 2006.

• Their team for that game was:
Barcelona: Valdés, Belletti, Motta (Iniesta 57), Márquez, Puyol, Xavi (Gudjohnsen 57), Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Sylvinho (Giuly 72), Messi, Deco.

• Should Barcelona prevail, they would become the third side to win three UEFA Super Cups, along with Ajax and Liverpool FC. Only one team has won the competition more than three times, with Milan emerging victorious on five occasions.

• Barcelona have played one other game at the Stade Louis II, recording a 1-0 success at Monaco in the 1993/94 UEFA Champions League group stage. Guardiola was in the starting lineup for that fixture, with Hristo Stoichkov scoring the only goal after 13 minutes for Johan Cruyff's side.

• Shakhtar's only previous game at the Stade Louis II ended in a 2-0 defeat by Monaco in the first round of the 1979/80 UEFA Cup, Délio Onnis and Christian Dalger scoring the goals against Victor Nosov's men.

Previous meetings

• The two clubs traded away wins in last season's UEFA Champions League group stage, Lionel Messi's two late goals handing Barcelona a 2-1 triumph in Donetsk before Shakhtar beat an experimental Barça side 3-2 at the Camp Nou – their first ever success in Spain.

• The sides for the first meeting, on 1 October 2008, were:
Shakhtar: Pyatov, Hübschman, Duljaj (Lewandowski 90), Fernandinho, Ilsinho (Willian 86), Shevchuk, Luiz Adriano (Seleznov 72), Brandão, Chygrynskiy, Ischenko, Srna.
Barcelona: Valdés, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Eto'o (Bojan 74), Henry (Messi 60), Keita (Gudjohnsen 81), Daniel Alves, Touré.

• The sides for the return fixture, on 9 December 2008, were:
Barcelona: Jorquera, Martín Cáceres, Piqué, Bojan, Keita, Sylvinho, Hleb, Pedro Rodríguez (Gudjohnsen 76), Busquets, Víctor Sánchez, Víctor Vázquez.
Shakhtar: Pyatov, Hübschman, Kucher, Fernandinho (Luiz Adriano 78), Jadson (Brandão 67), Gai, Gladkiy, Willian, Raţ, Chygrynskiy, Srna.

• Barça's 14 games against Ukrainian clubs include eight group-stage matches and three two-legged knockout ties, all of which they won on aggregate.

• Shakhtar's 12 games against Spanish sides comprise six group-stage fixtures and three two-legged knockout ties, all of which they lost on aggregate.

• Barcelona coach Guardiola was no stranger to Ukrainian opposition as a player, facing Shakhtar's arch-rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv four times, winning three games and losing one.

• Lucescu's Galatasaray met Barcelona in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League second group stage, suffering a 1-0 defeat in Istanbul and drawing 2-2 at the Camp Nou despite taking a two-goal lead. Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández featured in both legs for the Blaugrana.

• In total, Lucescu has been involved in 25 games against Spanish sides as a player and coach, with his record reading W6 D9 L10.

• As a striker for FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti, Lucescu registered against both of Madrid's leading clubs, playing in a win, a draw and two defeats in European club competition. He also represented Romania in three draws against Spain.

• Lucescu oversaw a 1-1 draw against Spain at the 1984 UEFA European Championship while working as Romania coach. With Galatasaray, Beşiktaş JK and Shakhtar, he has coached in 17 UEFA club competition games against Spanish outfits, his record reading W5 D4 L8.

Team ties

• Barcelona midfielder Yaya Touré will be up against a number of former team-mates in Monaco.The Ivorian played in Ukraine with FC Metallurh Donetsk in the 2003/04 and 2004/05 seasons, when future Shakhtar players Yuriy Virt, Olexandr Kucher and Olexiy Polyanskiy were among his team-mates.