Dnipro v St-Étienne background
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Article summary
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and AS Saint-Étienne no longer have their destinies in their own hands as they come together again in UEFA Europa League Group F.
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Article body
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and AS Saint-Étienne both need favours from elsewhere if they are to make it through to the UEFA Europa League round of 32 from Group F.
• Dnipro are bottom of the table and must win to have any hope of qualifying.
• St-Étienne need a better result than Qarabağ can manage against FC Internazionale Milano if they are to advance.
Form guide
• St-Étienne goalkeeper Stéphane Ruffier saved Nikola Kalinić's first-half penalty as the sides drew 0-0 in France on matchday two.
• Dnipro have drawn all four of their previous home games against French sides, most recently contesting a 2-2 result against Olympique de Marseille in the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup.
• Dnipro have lost both of their Group F home fixtures 1-0.
• St-Étienne have drawn all five of their group stage games so far, and could become the first side to draw all six in a major UEFA club competition group stage since Juventus broke new ground in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League.
Trivia and links
• Dnipro are the most fouled team in the group stage so far, having suffered 93 offences.
• Dnipro's Yevhen Konoplyanka and FK Partizan's Danko Lazović go into matchday six as the most fouled players in the group stage, with 19 infringements against each of them.
• Dnipro's Konoplyanka, Ruslan Rotan and Roman Zozulya were all involved as France beat Ukraine in the November 2013 play-offs for the FIFA World Cup finals. Ukraine won 2-0 at home but lost the return leg 3-0 in Saint-Denis.
The coaches
• Dnipro coach since May 2014, Myron Markevych started out as a midfielder with hometown club FC Karpaty Lviv, and while his playing career was not a huge success, he served Karpaty in four spells as a coach before a lengthy stint at FC Metalist Kharkiv earned him a reputation for attacking football. He briefly coached Ukraine in 2010.
• A defender for hometown club Olympique de Marseille, LOSC Lille and Toulouse FC among others, St-Étienne boss Christophe Galtier took up his current position in 2009, helping Les Verts to win the 2012/13 French League Cup. He had previously assisted Alain Perrin and Richard Tardy, working in England and Greece as well as France.
