Last season's UEFA Cup winners return to group-stage action in Group J, with FC Shakhtar Donetsk hoping their fourth visit to Club Brugge KV will bring them a first win at the Jan Breydel Stadium.

Previous meetings

• Shakhtar's previous three games in Bruges have ended in a defeat and two draws.

• The teams for their first encounter on Belgian soil (a 1-0 win for Club) in the first round of the 1995/96 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup were as follows:
Club Brugge: Verlinden, De Brul, Renier, Medved, Borkelmans, Van der Elst, Vermant, Verjans (Verheyen, 57), Stanić, Spehar, Claessens.
Shakhtar: Shutkov, Martyouk, Koval, Chikhradze, Popov, Kochvar, Orbu, Voskoboinik (Onopko, 80), Petrov, Spivak, Fedkov.

• The teams for their second encounter in Belgium (a 1-1 draw preceding a 4-1 shoot-out victory for the home side) in the third qualifying round of the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League were as follows:
Club Brugge: Verlinden, De Cock, Simons, Verheyen (Smolders, 63), Englebert, Ristić, Serebrennikov (Čeh, 69), Andrés Mendoza (Martens, 109), Lange, Maertens, Špilár.
Shakhtar: Kowalewski, Starostyak, Tymoshchuk, Popov (Lewandowski*, 46), Vorobey, Ndiaye, Aghahowa*, Gai* (Zubov, 91), Byelik (Pestryakov, 71), Okoronkwo, Florea.

• The teams for their most recent meeting at the Jan Breydel Stadium (a 2-2 draw), again in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round (2004/05), were as follows:
Club Brugge: Butina, Simons, Van der Heyden, Clement, Verheyen, Čeh, Balaban, Špilár (Lange, 65), Stoica, Cornelis, Victor Simões (Blondel*, 85).
Shakhtar: Laštuvka, Hübschmann*, Tymoshchuk, Matuzalem (Batista, 65), Vukić, Vorobey, Stoican, Aghahowa* (Duljaj*, 46), Lewandowski*, Raţ*, Marica (Brandão, 71).

*currently at the club

• Club Brugge's No1 in those first two encounters, Dany Verlinden, remains at the club as a goalkeeping coach.

Match background

• Club Brugge took part in three UEFA Cup group-stage campaigns, failing to progress on each occasion.

• Shakhtar reached the Round of 32 in their only UEFA Cup group-stage appearance in 2005/06, winning the competition last season after being transferred from the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Team facts

• Former Roda JC and PSV Eindhoven winger Adrie Koster replaced Jacky Mathijssen as Club Brugge coach in April. The former Dutch international (three caps) held the reins at a number of smaller Eredivisie sides before briefly becoming AFC Ajax coach in October 2007.

• Before the most recent Club Brugge v Shakhtar tie, Shakhtar trainer Mircea Lucescu coached FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti in four games against Belgian sides, losing all of them.

• Club visit Toulouse FC on Matchday 2, while Shakhtar are at home against FK Partizan on the same night, 1 October.