► Barça won on their last two European road trips, 1-0 at Shakhtar Donetsk and 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabéu, in the quarter and semi finals of last year’s Champions League.

► This is only the second time that BATE Borisov have appeared in the Champions League. In the 2008/09 edition they only managed to win one point from their three home fixtures.

► But since then they have only lost only one of eleven European matches played at home.

► BATE have played Liga clubs four times before but have lost every time (twice against Villarreal and twice against Real Madrid).

► Mateja Kezman, who signed for BATE this summer and the injured Barça star Ibrahim Afellay played together at PSV in Holland in the 2003/04 season.

► BATE manager Víktor Goncharenko was an international defender for Belarus until the age of 25, when a serious knee injury meant he was forced into early retirement.

► No Champions League club managed to force as many corners as Barça on the first day of play, although Dynamo Zagreb did manage to match their tally of eleven.

► The referee of tonight’s match will be Manuel Gräfe of Germany, who has never taken charge of either side before.