• Both clubs are competing at this stage for the third time. This is Dynamo's 50th match in the UEFA Europa League, group stage to final; they become the ninth club to reach that milestone, one of the others being Lazio, who are participating in their 54th encounter.
• Dynamo, who finished top of Group B in the autumn, used the away goals rule to their advantage in the round of 32, drawing 1-1 away to AEK Athens before holding the Greek club 0-0 at home.
• Group K winners Lazio defeated Romania's FCSB in the round of 32, scoring five goals in a UEFA Europa League match, group stage to final, for the first time – in a 5-1 second-leg win at the Stadio Olimpico. Having gone down 1-0 in Bucharest, that made them the first Italian club to win a knockout phase tie in the rebranded competition after losing the first leg.
Previous meetings
• After a goalless first half, the first leg came alive with three goals in ten minutes, Dynamo taking the lead through Viktor Tsygankov's third goal in as many UEFA Europa League away games before Ciro Immobile – with his sixth of the competition – and Felipe Anderson quickly turned the match in Lazio's favour. The final word, however, went to Dynamo substitute Júnior Moraes, who equalised on 79 minutes to become the competition's second highest scorer this season on seven goals. Dynamo lost Denys Garmash to a second yellow card deep into added time.
• The clubs' only other encounters came in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League first group stage, Lazio winning 2-1 at home and 1-0 away, the latter with a team featuring current boss Simone Inzaghi. Both clubs went through to the second group stage, Lazio with twice as many points as Dynamo (14 to seven).
• The Rome club, coached by Sven Göran Eriksson, eventually outlasted their Ukrainian rivals, reaching the quarter-finals, and also went on to land a Serie A/Coppa Italia double. Dynamo, led by Valeriy Lobanovskiy, emulated them by scooping both major Ukrainian domestic trophies that season.
• Dynamo have won only two of their 23 matches against Italian clubs, both against Lazio's city rivals Roma in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League group stage – although the 3-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico was awarded by forfeit after a half-time abandonment with the visitors leading 1-0. The return fixture was won 2-0, although Dynamo failed to progress from the group despite accumulating ten points. It remains their only home win in 11 games against Italian opposition (D3 L7).
• Lazio have won three of their five European away games against Ukrainian opposition, scoring eight goals and conceding two, and boast an overall record of W8 D2 L1. Those 11 matches have been against five different clubs, the only defeat coming in their very first encounter, the opening leg of a 1975/76 UEFA Cup first round tie away to Chornomorets Odesa (0-1), who were representing the USSR; Lazio were 3-0 winners in the return.
Form guide
• Dynamo are unbeaten in their last seven European home fixtures, winning five of them and scoring 21 goals while conceding six. They have also avoided defeat in their last 11 UEFA Europa League fixtures in Kyiv, play-offs included (W8 D3).
• The Ukrainian side's 0-0 draw in the round of 32 against AEK brought them a first clean sheet in eight springtime European matches at home (W2 D4 L2).
• Dynamo were the first team to book their place in the knockout phase, on matchday four, and scored 15 goals in the group stage – a figure bettered only by Group L qualifiers Zenit (17) and Real Sociedad (16). They now have 18 goals, one fewer than Lazio.
• Runners-up in the Ukrainian Premier League last season, Dynamo lost to Young Boys on away goals in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League before reaching the UEFA Europa League group stage courtesy of a 3-1 aggregate play-off win over Marítimo.
• Dynamo are in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 for the third time. They have won each of their previous two ties at this stage, claiming home victories in each case – against Manchester City in 2010/11 (2-0 home, 0-1 away) and another English club, Everton, in 2014/15 (1-2 away, 5-2 home). They were also semi-finalists in the last UEFA Cup, in 2008/09, losing to fellow Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk in the last four.
• Lazio have lost their last two European fixtures outside Italy, against Zulte Waregem (2-3) and FCSB (0-1), having previously equalled a UEFA Europa League record, group stage to final, by going 11 successive away matches unbeaten (W4 D7). The defeat in Belgium was their first in 28 UEFA Europa League group games, home or away (W17 D10).
• UEFA Cup runners-up in 1998, and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winners the following year, Lazio are competing in the UEFA Europa League after a one-season absence, having made it back thanks to a fifth-place finish in Serie A last term. They have qualified for the knockout phase in each of their last five participations.
• This is the Rome side's third appearance in the UEFA Europa League round of 16. They beat Stuttgart 5-1 on aggregate at this stage in 2012/13 (2-0 away, 3-1 home) but lost 4-1 over the two legs to Sparta Praha in 2015/16 (1-1 away, 0-3 home).
• Dynamo have qualified ten times out of 11 after drawing the first leg away from home in a European tie, most recently in this season's round of 32 against AEK. They have drawn the first leg 2-2 away on three occasions, prevailing each time, most significantly against Universitatea Craiova in the second round of the 1985/86 European Cup Winners' Cup (3-0 home), which they went on to win.
• Lazio have won four of the five UEFA competition ties in which they drew the first leg at home – although none of these have been after 2-2 scorelines – losing only against Marseille in the 2005 UEFA Intertoto Cup semi-final (1-1 home, 0-3 away). The successes include their first two ties en route to winning the 1998/99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup – against Lausanne (1-1 home, 2-2 away) and Partizan (0-0 home, 3-2 away).
Links and trivia
• Dynamo coach Aleksandr Khatskevich played against Lazio for Dinamo Minsk in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup first round (0-0 in Minsk, 1-4 in Rome).
• Dynamo goalkeeper Denys Boyko conceded four goals in two games against Lazio (1-1 in Ukraine, 1-3 in Italy) while playing for Dnipro in the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League group stage, with Sergej Milinković-Savić and Marco Parolo among the scorers.
• Immobile scored a hat-trick in Lazio's round of 32 second leg against FCSB on his first start in this season's competition. His two goals in the group stage, against Vitesse and Zulte Waregem, came as a substitute.
• Immobile scored the only goal for Italy's Under-21s when they defeated a Ukraine side featuring Vitaliy Buyalskiy in a March 2013 friendly.
• Milinković-Savić and Aleksandar Pantić played together for Serbia's U-21 team, while Jordan Lukaku and Dieumerci Mbokani are former team-mates at Anderlecht (2011–13).
• Lazio's Nani and Stefan de Vrij have both faced Dynamo with previous clubs in the UEFA Champions League, the former successfully for Manchester United (4-2 away, 4-0 home in the 2007/08 group stage), the latter unsuccessfully for Feyenoord (1-2 away, 0-1 home in the 2012/13 third qualifying round).
• The first-leg result was the 18th UEFA Europa League draw that Lazio have been involved in, group stage to final – a competition record. Dynamo, having drawn their last three matches, are close behind with 16.
• Garmash's red card in the first leg means that Dynamo have joined FCSB and Sporting CP with the most sendings-off (ten) in the history of the UEFA Europa League, group stage to final.
• Garmash is suspended for this fixture.
• Suspended for next match if booked: Volodymyr Shepeliev, Derlis González, Júnior Moraes (Dynamo); Ciro Immobile, Jordan Lukaku, Sergej Milinković-Savić (Lazio).
Penalty shoot-outs
• Dynamo won their only UEFA penalty shoot-out:
3-1 v Sparta Praha, 1998/99 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round
• Lazio have yet to feature in a UEFA penalty shoot-out.
The coaches
• Hired as Dynamo coach in July 2017, Aleksandr Khatskevich won seven successive league titles with the club as a player from 1996–2004, having also won five straight championships with Dinamo Minsk in his native Belarus. He later worked with Dynamo's youth and reserve teams before taking charge of the Belarus national side from 2014 to 2016. He was capped 38 times by his country, scoring four international goals.
• Lazio boss since April 2016, when he replaced Stefano Pioli, Simone Inzaghi represented the club as a forward from 1999–2010, winning the Italian double in his debut season. The younger brother of fellow ex-Italian international Filippo Inzaghi, with whom he played at home-town outfit Piacenza, he began coaching Lazio's youth teams immediately after hanging up his boots.
