Spalletti has reason to beware Austria Wien

FC Zenit will look to uphold their strong home record in Europe when they welcome an FK Austria Wien side making their first visit to Russia.

• The visitors' status as group stage newcomers means that Nenad Bjelica's men will go into this UEFA Champions League fixture as underdogs although home coach Luciano Spalletti's past experience of losing to Austrian opposition with Udinese Calcio will ensure he takes nothing for granted.

• Both teams are still seeking their first Group G points after Zenit lost 3-1 at Club Atlético de Madrid in their opening fixture, while Austria slipped to a 1-0 home reverse against FC Porto.

Match background
• Including victories against FC Nordsjælland (5-0) and FC Paços de Ferreira (4-2) this season, Zenit have won five of their last six home outings in Europe, and have lost just one of their last 23.

• Zenit are facing Austrian opponents for only the third time, and their two previous encounters came against the same club, ASKÖ Pasching – later renamed SK Austria Kärnten – in successive seasons in 2004/05 and 2005/06. In that first season, a Zenit side coached by Vlastimil Petržela prevailed on away goals in the UEFA Cup second qualifying round, after recovering from a 3-1 away defeat with a 2-0 home success – the decisive second goal scored by Aleksandr Kerzhakov.

• Vyacheslav Malafeev, Vladimir Bystrov and Andrey Arshavin also featured in that tie, and Kerzhakov and Arshavin were the scorers when Zenit earned a 2-2 draw in Pasching when the teams met again at the same stage of the 2005/06 UEFA Cup. After a 1-1 draw in the return leg, Zenit advanced once more on goal difference.

• Austria earned an impressive 2-0 victory at GNK Dinamo Zagreb in their previous away fixture in this season's competition – a result that allowed them to survive a 3-2 home defeat in the second leg of their play-off tie. Including last season's UEFA Europa League campaign, they have lost just two of their last eight games on the road in Europe.

• The Austrian champions travelled to the former USSR to play FC Dinamo Moskva in the 1977/78 European Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals but the away leg was actually played in Tbilisi, the capital of modern-day Georgia, owing to the freezing conditions in Moscow. Hermann Stessl's team led through Ernst Baumeister but slipped to a 2-1 defeat after conceding two late goals. They levelled the aggregate scores with a 2-1 second-leg victory back in Vienna – Hans Pirkner (pen) and Julio César Morales scoring – and then prevailed 5-4 on spot kicks.

Team ties
• As coach of Udinese, Spalletti's first experience of a major UEFA club competition a decade ago ended after defeat by Austrian opponents. Drawn against FC Salzburg in the first round of the 2003/04 UEFA Cup, Spalletti's Udinese looked in control of the tie after winning the first leg 1-0 in Salzburg. They then took the lead at home in the second leg on 15 October 2003, but subsequently conceded two second-half goals to lose 2-1 on the night and suffer elimination on away goals.

• Axel Witsel struck both goals in Belgium's 2-0 away win against Austria in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier on 25 March 2011, having also featured in the teams' 4-4 draw in Brussels five months earlier when Nicolas Lombaerts was among the scorers.

• Tymoshchuk was 22 when he faced Austria Wien with FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup first round, losing the first leg 5-1 in Vienna before a 1-0 home win. Tymoshchuk faced Heinz Lindner and Markus Suttner in Ukraine's 3-2 loss to Austria in a pre-UEFA EURO 2012 friendly in Innsbruck in June last year.

• Roman Kienast played for SK Sturm Graz in a 3-1 reverse at FC Lokomotiv Moskva in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Kaja Rogulj was in the NK Slaven Koprivnica side beaten home and away by PFC CSKA Moscow as they fell to a 3-1 aggregate defeat in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup first round.