Rio Ave make their bow as Dynamo arrive

First-timers Rio Ave FC will get a crash course in European football at the highest level as they welcome FC Dynamo Kyiv in their opening UEFA Europa League Group J game.

Form guide
• Dynamo have won just once in seven trips to Portugal – 1-0 at FC Porto in the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League group stage – with five of those journeys ending in defeat.

• Rio Ave have yet to lose (W1 D1) or concede a goal at home in European club competition.

• Dynamo are competing in this group stage for a fourth time, having only once – in 2011/12 – failed to make it through to the round of 32.

Trivia and links
• Rio Ave striker Ukra got his unusual nickname as a child because his long, fair hair supposedly made him look Ukrainian.

• Rio Ave's Belarusian midfielder Renan Bressan is by far the most experienced European campaigner in their squad. He faced Dynamo twice with FC BATE Borisov in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage. His side drew 2-2 in Kyiv but lost 4-1 at home.

• Dynamo boast Portuguese talent in the form of Miguel Veloso. During his days at Sporting Clube de Portugal, the midfielder was a team-mate of Rio Ave left-back Tiago Pinto.

The coaches
• As a defensive midfielder, Rio Ave coach Pedro Martins' career peaked during a three-year spell at Sporting – during which he earned, in 1997, his only cap for Portugal. As a coach, he worked his way up the leagues, joining Rio Ave in 2014 after a four-year stint at CS Marítimo.

• Dynamo coach Serhiy Rebrov formed a deadly attacking partnership with Andriy Shevchenko for the Bilo-Syni, though his goals dried up somewhat after moving abroad. Following retirement in 2009, Rebrov took a job with Dynamo's youth team, but became first team coach in May 2014 after a successful caretaker spell.