Anderlecht seek perfect finish against Lokomotiv

RSC Anderlecht will look to complete their tremendous UEFA Europa League Group L campaign with a sixth victory as FC Lokomotiv Moskva head west.

• Anderlecht and Lokomotiv are already sure to reach the round of 32, and it would take a substantial home defeat for the Brussels side to be denied top spot in the section.

Previous meetings
• Anderlecht won 2-0 when the teams met in Moscow on matchday two. Matías Suárez followed up a matchday one hat-trick with an 11th-minute opener and, after his side had soaked up a great deal of pressure, substitute Dieudonné Mbokani sealed the spoils with the visitors' second goal on 71 minutes.

• The clubs played in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League group stage, with Aimé Antheunis' Anderlecht drawing 1-1 in Moscow before Yuri Semin's Lokomotiv won the return fixture 5-1.

• The sides for that 5-1 win in Brussels on 24 October 2001 were:
Anderlecht: De Wilde, Ilić, Vanderhaeghe, De Boeck, Said (De Bilde 46), Hendrikx, Hasi, Crasson, Mornar, Iachtchouk (Yasin Karaca, 52), Dindane (Jestrović 64).
Lokomotiv: Nigmatullin, Lekcetho (Nizhegorodov 84), Ignashevich, Chugainov, Izmailov, Maminov, Obiorah (Buznikin 55), Loskov, Cherevchenko, Sennikov, Pimenov (Drozdov 76).

• Loko's Dmitri Loskov is the only player who featured in that game that has a chance of appearing in this one.

Match background
• Anderlecht's nine fixtures against Russian sides have ended W3 D1 L5 (W2 D0 L2 at home).

• Lokomotiv have played seven games against Belgian teams, with the record W3 D2 L2 (W1 D1 L1 in Belgium).

• Anderlecht are the only club to have taken a maximum 15 points from the first five matchdays. They have won six of their seven European games this season, drawing the other one.

• Lokomotiv have won their last three European games by an identical 3-1 scoreline. They are unbeaten in four 2011/12 continental away ties, two draws followed by two wins.

Team facts
• Anderlecht's Suárez is the competition's top scorer with six goals, one ahead of Fulham FC's Andrew Johnson, who is suspended for matchday six.

Six other players have scored four goals:-
Dmitri Sychev (FC Lokomotiv Moskva)
Joseph Akpala (Club Brugge KV)
Guillaume Gillet (RSC Anderlecht)
Dalibor Volaš (NK Maribor)
Miroslav Radović (Legia Warszawa)
Toto Tamuz (Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC)

• Anderlecht's next goal will be their 550th in UEFA club competition. They boast more European experience than any other side in the group stage; this is their 338th UEFA competition game.

• Anderlecht's Serbian forward Milan Jovanović was at Lokomotiv from 2004 to 2006 but made just three substitute appearances in the league and did not score for the Railwaymen.

• Ariël Jacobs has been Anderlecht coach since November 2007. Once a striker, he spent most of his playing career with K. Diegem Sport, serving the Belgian outfit in four separate spells (1965-70, 1973-79, 1980-1983 and 1984-87). He later coached youth teams for the Royal Belgian Football Association (URBSFA-KBVB) and acted as assistant to national team boss Guy Thys before returning to club football with RWD Molenbeek, RAA Louviéroise, KSC Lokeren OV and R. Excelsior Mouscron.

• Lokomotiv coach José Couceiro was in caretaker charge at Sporting Clube de Portugal for the latter part of the 2010/11 season before replacing Yuri Krasnozhan as Lokomotiv boss in July. Since coaching Portugal's Under-21s from 2006 to 2007, he has been in charge of FBK Kaunas, Lithuania and Gaziantepspor.