Petev's first Dinamo test against buoyant Sevilla

Ivaylo Petev leads GNK Dinamo Zagreb for the first time in the UEFA Champions League as they take on Sevilla FC, with his new charges looking for a big improvement after two defeats.

• It is the first time the sides have met in a European contest.

Match background

Dinamo
• The Croatian champions started with a 3-0 defeat at Olympique Lyonnais and then went down 4-0 at home to Juventus, conceding two goals in each half.

• Three points adrift at the foot of the section, they followed the Juventus reverse by installing Petev, the former Bulgaria coach, at the helm as the successor to Zlatko Kranjčar.

• Last season Dinamo ended a 16-year wait for a victory in the competition proper when they beat Arsenal FC 2-1 at home. They lost both their other home matches, however, and all three away to finish bottom of Group F.

• The Croatian double winners have failed to qualify from the group stage in all five previous attempts. In fact, in all 12 previous UEFA club competition group stages – including seven in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League – they have yet to make it through to the next phase.

• Away form underpinned Dinamo's progress through this season's qualifying rounds. They prevailed 2-1 at FK Vardar in the second qualifying round (5-3 on aggregate) and 1-0 at FC Dinamo Tbilisi in the next stage (3-0 on aggregate).

• After a 1-1 draw at home to FC Salzburg in the play-offs they trailed in Austria until the 87th minute when Junior Fernandes forced extra time. El Arabi Hilal Soudani's strike then completed the victory.

• Dinamo's sole victory in eight matches against Liga sides, six of which they have lost, came in a 2-0 home success against Villarreal CF in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• Their most recent contest came in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League group stage when they lost 6-2 away to Real Madrid CF. That was one of only three occasions in the eight encounters when they managed to get on the scoresheet.

Sevilla
• Los Blanquirrojos began with a 0-0 draw at Juventus and then beat Lyon 1-0 with Wissam Ben Yedder's second-half goal. They share top spot in Group H with Juventus. 

• Last season Unai Emery's side put the disappointment at only finishing third in Group D behind them by lifting the UEFA Europa League for the third successive year and fifth time in 11 seasons.

• In the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League they lost all three away fixtures. In the UEFA Europa League they won one of their four away games, drawing two, en route to the final in Basel where they overcame Liverpool FC 3-1.

• On their way to lifting the trophy the previous season they overcame Croatian opponents in HNK Rijeka, drawing 2-2 away in the group stage thanks to substitute Stéphane Mbia's added-time equaliser. Timothée Kolodziejczak's red card had reduced the visitors to ten men. Sevilla won the return 1-0, their second and last meeting with Croatian opponents.

Coach and player links
• Ángelo Henríquez was given his Chile debut by Jorge Sampaoli and was part of the squad that won the 2015 Copa América, Chile’s first major international trophy, under Sampaoli. Henríquez came on in the final against Argentina.

• Henríquez spent 2013/14 on loan at Real Zaragoza, scoring six goals in 25 appearances.

• Junior Fernandes played under Sampaoli for Chile from 2012 to 2015.

• Daniel Olmo was born and grew up in Spain. He played in RCD Espanyol and FC Barcelona's youth systems before joining Dinamo in 2014.

• Gabriel Mercado and Leonardo Sigali both played for Argentina in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup final, beating Czech Republic 2-1 in Toronto.

• Paulo Machado and Ben Yedder played together at Toulouse FC in 2012/13.

• Alexandru Mățel and Sergio Rico were unused substitutes for their respective international sides in Romania's goalless draw with Spain in an international friendly in March 2016 in Cluj-Napoca.

Match facts

Dinamo
• Davor Lovren is serving a one-game ban.

• The 5-2 loss at HNK Rijeka on 18 September, Dinamo's third successive defeat, prompted the resignation of coach Kranjčar. Caretaker Željko Sopić was in charge for the 5-0 win at amateur outfit NK Veli Vrh in the Croatian Cup round of 32 two days later, before Petev was confirmed as the new coach on 29 September.

• Filip Benković scored in Croatia's 4-2 defeat against Sweden that meant they failed to qualify for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

• Soudani scored in Algeria's 1-1 draw against Cameroon in FIFA World Cup qualifying.

• Dinamo have won only three of their last eight matches, losing four of them; they had previously been unbeaten in 25.

• Ante Ćorić and Ivan Fiolić missed out on international duty with Croatia's Under-21 team after picking up minor injuries, but have returned to training with Ćorić coming on in Friday's 1-0 win at NK Slaven Belupo.

Sevilla
• Luciano Vietto has scored three goals this campaign, equalling the tally he managed in 28 appearances for Club Atlético de Madrid last term.

• Vitolo scored Spain's goal in a 1-1 draw in Italy on 6 October.

• Sevilla have not won an away game in the UEFA Champions League since 20 October 2009. Until Saturday's 3-2 defeat of CD Leganés, they had not picked up a Liga victory on the road since 23 May 2015.

• Adil Rami (hamstring) and Daniel Carriço (adductor) have not played since 17 September due to injury.

• Benoît Trémoulinas (knee) has not played this season, while Carlos Fernández (knee) has been out since 1 October.