Play-off ties: facts and figures

LEAGUE ROUTE

Beşiktaş JK (TUR) v Arsenal FC (ENG) – 19/27 August

• Demba Ba, who scored a hat-trick on his first Beşiktaş start on Tuesday, struck twice against Arsenal on 29 December 2012 – when Newcastle United FC lost 7-3 in his last game before joining Chelsea FC.

• Last season Arsenal knocked out Istanbul club Fenerbahçe SK 5-0 on aggregate in the play-offs.

R. Standard de Liège (BEL) v FC Zenit (RUS) – 20/26 August

• Axel Witsel of Zenit started his senior career with Standard.

• Zenit beat Standard 4-1 on aggregate in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round on their way to winning the competition.

FC København (DEN) v Bayer 04 Leverkusen (GER) – 19/27 August

• FCK have not won in eight meetings with German opposition – all in the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League.

• Leverkusen will kick off Germany's bid to provide at least one finalist in the 6 June decider at Berlin's Olympiastadion.

LOSC Lille (FRA) v FC Porto (POR) – 20/26 August

• The LOSC squad includes on-loan Manchester City FC forward Marcos Lopes – whose maiden European campaign was ended by old club SL Benfica in last season's UEFA Youth League quarter-finals.

• Porto will hope to take an omen from when the final was last in Germany ten years ago: they overcame France's AS Monaco FC 3-0 to lift the trophy for the second time.

SSC Napoli (ITA) v Athletic Club (ESP) – 19/27 August

• Napoli coach Rafael Benítez is familiar with the Basque Country and its surroundings, having coached CA Osasuna in 1996/97.

• Athletic are aiming for their second group stage campaign, 16 years after the first.

CHAMPIONS ROUTE

NK Maribor (SVN) v Celtic FC (SCO) – 20/26 August

• Maribor knocked out Rangers FC in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League play-offs.

• Celtic have never faced Slovenian opposition.

FC Salzburg (AUT) v Malmö FF (SWE) – 19/27 August

• Salzburg have happy memories of their first encounters with Swedish opposition, defeating IF Elfsborg 4-0 at home and 1-0 away in last term's UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Malmö may never have played in the group stage but they famously reached the European Cup final – in a German arena named the Olympiastadion – in 1979.

Aalborg BK (DEN) v APOEL FC (CYP) – 20/26 August

• AaB are the lowest-ranked team left in the competition, 249th in the UEFA coefficients, yet have twice played in the group stage.

• APOEL earned their first group qualification in 2009/10 by beating Denmark's FCK 3-2 on aggregate in the play-offs, despite losing the first leg 1-0 in Copenhagen.

FC Steaua Bucureşti (ROU) v PFC Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) – 19/27 August

• Steaua's last three European ties with Bulgarian opposition were against PFC CSKA Sofia – the Romanian side going through on each occasion.

• Ludogorets have never faced Romanian opposition.

ŠK Slovan Bratislava (SVK) v FC BATE Borisov (BLR) – 20/26 August

• This will be Slovan's first game against a Belarusian team – and BATE's maiden meeting with a Slovak club.

• BATE are targeting a fourth group qualification in seven seasons.