Valencia will look to maintain Zenit’s record of having lost every game in Spain when the teams meet in their opening Group H fixture at Mestalla.
• It is the first UEFA Champions League match as a coach for Valencia’s Nuno Espírito Santo and comes against André Villas-Boas, an old colleague from their days at FC Porto under José Mourinho.
Match background
Zenit
• For Zenit this is the fifth consecutive season of UEFA Champions League group stage football. Last season they finished third in their group and went on to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League.
• Zenit’s run in last season’s UEFA Europa League ended with a 4-3 aggregate defeat by Sevilla FC. Their 2-1 first-leg loss in Seville maintained their miserable record on Spanish soil, where Zenit have lost on all seven previous visits.
• Zenit are on a nine-game winless streak against Spanish sides dating back to their triumphant 2007/08 UEFA Cup run when they beat Villarreal CF 1-0 at home in the round of 32 to set up an away-goals success. Aleksandr Anyukov, Viktor Fayzulin and Vyacheslav Malafeev played in that match.
