All or nothing for Lokomotiv in Athens

FC Lokomotiv Moskva are fighting for their UEFA Cup lives as they visit Panathinaikos FC seeking a win against a side already sure of a last-32 place.

• Panathinaikos made it through to the last 32 without kicking a ball on Matchday 3. Wins in their opening games against Aberdeen FC and FC København combined with defeats for Aberdeen and Lokomotiv on 29 November ensured that neither of the latter sides can catch them.

• Fourth in the section with two points from three games, anything less than a win will see Lokomotiv eliminated from the competition.

• The two sides have never met in UEFA club competition.

• Surprisingly, given their long experience of European competition, this is Panathinaikos's first meeting with a Russian side.

• Lokomotiv met Panathinaikos's rivals AEK Athens FC in the quarter-finals of the 1997/98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, drawing 0-0 in Greece before winning 2-1 at home.

• Panathinaikos defender Marcelo Mattos and his Lokomotiv counterpart Fininho were briefly team-mates at Brazilian side SC Corinthians Paulista in 2005.

• Making their second UEFA Cup group phase appearance, after qualifying in 2005/06, Lokomotiv have yet to lose an away game at this stage in the competition, drawing two and winning one.

• Panathinaikos three UEFA Cup group stage home games to date have produced a draw and two wins. They are unbeaten in their last six European home ties.

• Lokomotiv dismissed coach Anatoly Byshovets after finishing seventh in the Russian Premier-Liga, with youth coach Renat Bilyaletdinov – the father of team captain Diniyar Bilyaletdinov – taking temporary command.

• The captain said of his new coach: "I have been playing football since I was four and all that time I was under the supervision of my dad, who paid me a lot of attention. I am his main target of criticism. If something happens, he will happily bench me – it happened a lot in the youth teams."

• Dimitrios Papadopoulos has scored five goals for Panathinaikos since the first round, making him the 2007/08 UEFA Cup's joint second top scorer alongside Helsingborgs IF's Henrik Larsson.

• København are at home against Club Atlético de Madrid in Wednesday's other Group B game.