Steaua Bucharest v Arsenal

Champions League, Group H match
Date: Tuesday, 2 October
Kick-off: 1945 BST
Venue: Ghencea Stadium
Listen: BBC Radio 5live Updates: BBC Sport website and mobile

Aleksandr Hleb will travel with the Arsenal squad for Tuesday's Champions League clash at Steaua Bucharest.

The Belarus midfielder suffered a knee injury at West Ham on Saturday, but faces a late fitness test in Romania.

Striker Emmanuel Adebayor (thigh) is also a doubt, along with Abou Diaby (ankle) and Mathieu Flamini (groin).

Jens Lehmann (elbow), William Gallas (groin), Tomas Rosicky (hamstring), Eduardo (groin) and Alex Song (calf) all remain sidelined.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger expected to be without Hleb after he suffered bad bruising in a collision with Mark Noble in the 1-0 win at Upton Park.

But he said: "Alex Hleb will travel. We tested him for a check on his bone and a decision will be made on Tuesday over whether he will play or not.

"Emmanuel Adebayor will (also) travel, but it looks a little less good than it did."

The Gunners began their opened their European campaign with a fine 3-0 win over Sevilla two weeks ago.

Steaua Bucharest (from): To follow.

Arsenal (from): Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Senderos, Clichy, Eboue, Fabregas, Flamini, Diaby, Adebayor, van Persie, Fabianski, Hleb, Denilson, Gilberto, Walcott, Bendtner, Traore.

BIG MATCH STATS

Head-to-heads

These clubs are facing each other for the first time in European competition.

The Bucharest team have played English opponents 10 times. They are undefeated in five at home against English clubs but are yet to win on English turf; Arsenal's only experience of Romanian opposition came in the 1969-70 Fairs Cup, when they destroyed Dinamo Bacau 9-1 on aggregate.

European history

Steaua Bucharest are the only club from Romania ever to compete in the Champions League. They are playing their 38th season of European football, but have failed to advance beyond the group stage in each of their four previous CL appearances.

Arsenal, the 2005-06 runners-up, are in their 23rd season in Europe and 10th in the CL main competition.

Current European form

Steaua survived two rounds of qualifying, but are winless in six in the main CL competition, culminating in the 2-1 defeat at Slavia Prague in their opening group match this season. They have not kept a clean sheet in their last 10 Champions League matches, since defeating Poland's Widzew Lodz 1-0 in October 1996.

Arsenal beat Sparta Prague in qualifying, and started their challenge in the main competition with a comprehensive 3-0 home victory over Uefa Cup holders Sevilla.

Player and disciplinary info

If selected, Marius Croitoru will be playing on his 27th birthday.

Nicolae Dica is the most productive CL goal scorer in Steaua's squad having netted four times. He is also the club's all-time leading CL goal scorer (1992-2007); Jens Lehmann is Arsenal's most experienced player in the Champions league, having made 57 appearances. Tomas Rosicky is the top scorer of CL goals in Arsenal's squad, with eight.

Other miscellaneous facts

Following their defeat against Slavia Prague, Gheorghe Hagi resigned as head coach, and was replaced by Italy's Massimo Pedrazzini, who has no CL experience at all, but becomes the fifth Italian to coach a CL club this season.

On Saturday, Steaua beat FC Vaslui 1-0 in the Romanian league, and are sixth in the table; Arsenal won 1-0 win at West Ham to stay top of the Premier League and unbeaten in all competitions this season (10 wins, one draw).

Definitions of terms used:-

Champions League (CL) - only group phase matches and beyond of this competition which began in 1992-93.
Champions Cup/Champions League - all matches played since it began in 1955-56 including qualification matches.
European matches - all matches played in the major European tournaments (Fairs Cup, Uefa Cup, Cup Winners' Cup, Champions Cup, Champions League).
Uefa Super Cups, Intertoto Cups and the old Intercontinental Cup competition are excluded.

Big Match Stats source: Infostrada Sports

Source: BBC Sport