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Spartak set for Leverkusen rematch

FC Spartak Moskva start their Group E campaign with a rematch of a 2000/01 UEFA Champions League group stage fixture against Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

FC Spartak Moskva start their Group E campaign with a rematch of a 2000/01 UEFA Champions League group stage meeting with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Artem Bezrodny and Yegor Titov scored as Spartak won 2-0 at home, while Michael Ballack struck the only goal in Leverkusen's 1-0 victory back at the BayArena.

• Current Spartak midfielder Maxym Kalynychenko played in both of those matches. Leverkusen's Bernd Schneider was also on the team sheet for both games but only appeared in the match in Moscow as a second-half substitute.

• That match represented Leverkusen's only previous experience of Russian opposition.

• Spartak have played 28 games against German teams. Of those matches, they have won nine, drawn seven and lost 12.

• At home they have won eight, drawn four and lost two against German sides, but none of those wins have come in their last three home meetings with Bundesliga teams.

• Spartak are playing in their first group stage game of the season while Leverkusen won their opener 1-0 at home against Toulouse FC - Stefan Kiessling scoring the only goal (35).

• Leverkusen forward Dmitri Bulykin will return to his native Moscow for the first time since moving to Germany this year. The 27-year-old previously played for FC Lokomotiv Moskva and FC Dinamo Moskva and scored seven goals in 15 international games for Russia between 2003 and 2004.

• Spartak's Austrian defender Martin Stranzl knows plenty about German football having started his career at TSV 1860 München, playing there until 2004 before spending two seasons at VfB Stuttgart and then heading for Moscow.

• Spartak coach Stanislav Cherchesov will have a good knowledge of German having played in Austria for FC Tirol Innsbruck - now FC Wacker Tirol - between 1996 and 2002.

• Spartak are unbeaten in their last four European home games, although they won only one of those matches.

• Leverkusen have lost in their last three European away games, and have not earned a win on their travels in 17 games - a run stretching back to a 2-0 UEFA Champions League win at Maccabi Haifa FC in the 2002/03 season.

• Toulouse FC are at home against AC Sparta Praha in the day's other Group E game.