Shakhtar Donetsk and Marseille’s only previous encounters in European competition both came in April 2009, when Shakhtar won both legs (2-0 home, 2-1 away) of a quarter-final tie against OM en route to the Ukrainians winning the final edition of the UEFA Cup in 2008/09.

After beating FC Dnipro 1-0 at the Last 32 stage of the 2003/04 UEFA Cup, Marseille have since failed to win any of their five matches against Ukrainian opposition in European competition (D3, L2), whilst OM have conceded exactly twice in the last three of those matches against Ukrainian opponents, after recording clean sheets in each of the first three.

Shakhtar Donetsk have shipped 16 goals across their last six UEFA Europa League matches and have conceded at least once in each of those games (2.7 per game), although Shakhtar have never conceded in seven consecutive games in the competition.

Prior to a 0-1 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion on MD6, Marseille were unbeaten through their opening five games of the 2023/24 UEFA Europa League (W3 D2), while OM had also netted 2+ goals in each of those games (14 goals), averaging 2.8 goals per game at that stage of the campaign.

Only Brighton’s João Pedro (6) has netted more goals in the UEFA Europa League this season than Marseille’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (5), while he currently sits on 29 goals overall in the competition, with only Radamel Falcao (30) scoring more since the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League rebrand.