FC Rostov host five-time winners FC Bayern MĂĽnchen looking to put up rather more resistance than they managed when the clubs met in Bavaria on matchday one.
• Bayern beat Rostov 5-0 to spoil the Russian newcomers’ UEFA Champions League debut but though they remain without a win in Group D, Ivan Daniliants’ men are growing in experience and would have taken a point at Club AtlĂ©tico de Madrid last time out but for a 93rd-minute goal.
• As for Bayern, they secured their place in the round of 16 for the ninth season running when winning 2-1 at PSV Eindhoven on matchday four.
Match background
Rostov
• Rostov were unbeaten at home for 26 matches in all competitions prior to succumbing 1-0 to Atlético in their last Group D outing at the Olimp 2 Stadium.
• Third in the section, they retain hope of European football after Christmas but will not want to slip behind bottom-placed PSV before their matchday six visit to the Netherlands.
• Prior to this season, last season’s Russian Premier League runners-up had played just ten European matches in their entire history – two fewer than Bayern contested in 2015/16.
Bayern
• Bayern are second in the Group D standings, three points behind Atlético. They last failed to qualify as group winners in 2009/10.
• Thomas MĂĽller scored from the penalty spot on Bayern’s last two visits to Russia – UEFA Champions League group stage matches against PFC CSKA Moskva in 2013/14 (won 3-1) and 2014/15 (won 1-0).
• Philipp Lahm and Franck RibĂ©ry are survivors of Bayern’s 4-0 loss at FC Zenit in the 2008 UEFA Cup semi-finals – their only defeat in nine previous trips to Russia (W5, D3).
Coach and player links
• Home coach Danilants faced Germany in UEFA EURO 2000 qualifying during his time in charge of Moldova’s national team and lost both at home (1-3) and away (1-6).
• Carlo Ancelotti’s first taste of UEFA competition was as an Italy Under-21 player in a 3-1 defeat in the Soviet Union in April 1980. Eight years later he was in the Italy side beaten 2-0 by the USSR in the semi-final of the 1988 UEFA European Championship.
• Ancelotti was in charge of the Juventus side who beat Rostov 4-0 away and 5-1 at home in the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup – the Russian club’s debut appearance in European competition.
• Ancelotti enjoyed victories on both of his previous visits to Russia in the UEFA Champions League: 1-0 at FC Lokomotiv Moskva with AC Milan in the 2002/03 second group stage; 2-0 at FC Spartak Moskva with Chelsea FC in the 2010/11 group stage.
• Kingsley Coman hit his first goal for France in a 4-2 friendly defeat of Russia on 29 March this year.
• Arturo Vidal and Christian Noboa faced off in the opening game of the 2015 Copa AmĂ©rica, Bayern’s Chilean midfielder scoring in the tournament hosts’ 2-0 victory over Noboa’s Ecuador.
• RibĂ©ry scored twice for France in a 4-2 FIFA World Cup qualifying win away to Timofei Kalachev’s Belarus in September 2013. Kalachev hit his side’s second goal.
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