Shakhtar v BATE background

A remarkable 7-0 victory when these sides met in Belarus has put FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the best of moods as they prepare to face FC BATE Borisov again.

Match background

Shakhtar
• Records tumbled in the Borisov Arena on matchday three as Shakhtar moved up to second place in Group H, Luiz Adriano becoming the second player to score five goals in a UEFA Champions League fixture.

• The Brazilian completed a hat-trick inside 13 minutes and in the process became Shakhtar's all-time top scorer on 117 goals. His side's 6-0 half-time lead was a first for the competition while the game represented both Shakhtar's biggest win in UEFA club competition and BATE's worst defeat.

• On matchday two Shakhtar were denied by an FC Porto equaliser in the fourth minute of added time despite leading 2-0 in the 89th minute. They started with a goalless draw at Athletic Club and have five points, two fewer than leaders Porto.

• Before matchday three, Shakhtar's only experience of opponents from Belarus came in the 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup when they lost 2-1 at home to an FC Ataka-Aura Minsk side who included BATE head coach Aleksandr Yermakovich.   

• The Ukrainian champions are taking part in the group stage for the tenth time. In last season's competition they finished third in the group on eight points.

• Transferring to the UEFA Europa League, they were eliminated in the round of 32, losing 2-1 at home to FC Viktoria Plzeň after a 1-1 away draw.

• Shakhtar have lost only three of their last 17 home games in the UEFA Champions League, winning eight.

• Their best performance in the UEFA Champions League came in 2010/11 when they reached the quarter-finals.

BATE
• Before this season, BATE's sole competitive experience of Ukrainian opposition came in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage. Pavel Nekhaychik scored a second-half equaliser to earn a 2-2 draw away to FC Dynamo Kyiv, Vitali Rodionov having put the visitors ahead. In Minsk, Nekhaychik got BATE's late consolation with Dynamo already 4-0 ahead. 

• BATE recorded a 2-1 victory over Athletic in the first group stage fixture at their new Borisov Arena on matchday two having started with a 6-0 reverse at Porto. They are third in the section, two points behind Shakhtar.

• BATE have conceded 14 times in three Group H outings. The most any team has conceded in the group stage is 22, a record shared by GNK Dinamo Zagreb (2011/12) and FC Nordsjælland (2012/13).

• Belarus champions for an eighth successive season in 2013, BATE are in the group stage for the fourth time overall and the third time in four seasons.

• In Yermakovich's European bow as coach, they overcame KS Skënderbeu in this season's second qualifying round thanks to Anri Khagush's goal in a 1-1 away draw after a goalless home leg.

• BATE beat Debreceni VSC 3-2 on aggregate in the third qualifying round before another 1-1 away draw paved the way for a 3-0 home win against ŠK Slovan Bratislava in the play-offs.

Coach and player links
• Andriy Pyatov, Olexandr Kucher, Vyacheslav Shevchuk and Taras Stepanenko played in Ukraine's 2-0 win against a Belarus team who included Egor Filipenko, Denis Polyakov and Mikhail Gordeychuk in a UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier on 9 October at the Borisov Arena.

• Pyatov and Shevchuk started in Ukraine's 1-0 win over Filipenko's Belarus in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Lviv on 6 September 2008. Aleksandr Pavlov came on after 81 minutes for the visitors.

Match facts

Shakhtar
• Darijo Srna and Kucher are both a yellow card away from a suspension after being booked on matchdays one and two.

• Srna's second goal in three games was nothing more than consolation as Shakhtar were beaten 2-1 by FC Metalurh Donetsk on Friday.

• Having started the Premier League season with six consecutive wins, third-placed Shakhtar have lost three of their last four.

• Six days after their seven-goal win in Borisov, Shakhtar completed a 9-2 aggregate victory over second-tier FC Poltava in the Ukrainian Cup round of 16.

• Teenagers Viktor Kovalenko and Bohdan Sarnavskiy, who are not in the UEFA Champions League squad, made their debuts in the 4-1 second-leg success.

• Bernard was on target twice in the return match against Poltava, his first goals of the season.

• Shakhtar have scored 18 times in their last four games.

BATE
• On Saturday, BATE broke their league record, set between April and October 2008, for consecutive matches without defeat. Aleksandr Yermakovich's men stretched their unbeaten run to 28 Vysshaya Liga games with a 2-1 win at title rivals and UEFA Europa League group stage participants FC Dinamo Minsk.

• Goals from defenders Khagush and Polyakov secured BATE victory against second-placed Dinamo. BATE have a four-point lead with three league fixtures remaining.

• FC Torpedo Zhodino equalised in the 90th minute to restrict BATE to a 2-2 derby draw on 27 October. Evgeni Yablonski, with his first goal for the Borisov side, had made it 2-1 to the visitors with ten minutes remaining.

• Captain Dmitri Likhtarovich has made 91 appearances in UEFA club competition, one shy of Aleksandr Hleb's national record.

• Aleksandr Karnitski has scored five goals in his last five Vysshaya Liga games.