Schalke’s last three UEFA Champions League campaigns have all ended in the round of 16 and they will be keen to make the most of home advantage as they welcome Manchester City for the first leg of their latest knockout tie.
• The German club reached the semi-finals in 2010/11, but have not been past the round of 16 in three attempts since. Schalke qualified for this season’s knockout stages by finishing second to Porto in Group D.
• The winners of Group F in the autumn, Manchester City are in the knockout stages for the sixth year in a row, and have won two of their last three round of 16 ties. In 2017/18 they went on to the quarter-finals, where they lost to fellow English side Liverpool.
Previous meetings
• City have won two of the teams’ three previous fixtures, most recently a 2-0 success in Gelsenkirchen in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage thanks to goals from Benjani and Stephen Ireland. Vincent Kompany played 90 minutes for City, the only player from either side who is still with their club.
• The English club also came out on top against Schalke in the semi-final of their victorious European Cup Winners’ Cup campaign in 1969/70, overturning a 1-0 first-leg loss in Germany with a 5-1 victory in Manchester.
Form guide
Schalke
• Schalke are in the last 16 for the first time since 2014/15, when they lost 5-4 on aggregate to Real Madrid, going down 2-0 in the home first leg and bowing out despite a 4-3 success in Spain.
• That made it three successive last-16 defeats for Schalke, who were also beaten 9-2 on aggregate by Madrid in 2013/14 and 4-3 by Galatasaray the previous season, in each instance losing the home leg – the 6-1 home loss to Madrid in February 2014 equalling their biggest European defeat.
• Overall, Schalke have won only two of their five round of 16 ties in the UEFA Champions League. In each of those aggregate victories, against Porto in 2007/08 and Valencia in 2010/11, they won the home leg.
• Schalke picked up 11 points in this season’s group stage, seven coming at home where they beat Galatasaray (2-0) and Lokomotiv Moskva (1-0) after opening with a 1-1 draw against Porto.
• Schalke have still won only three of their last eight UEFA Champions League games in Gelsenkirchen (D2 L3), conceding 18 goals.
• Schalke are, however, unbeaten in nine home European fixtures (W6 D3).
• The German club are without a win in their last five games against English sides (D2 L3), since a 2-0 victory at Arsenal in October 2012. Their most recent game with a Premier League side in Gelsenkirchen was a 5-0 loss to Chelsea in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League group stage, equalling their heaviest European defeat.
• That defeat by Chelsea made it six home matches against English clubs without a win – during which they conceded 14 goals and scored two – for Schalke (D2 L4), who won the first three such fixtures; they have not beaten an English club in Germany since a 3-1 defeat of Arsenal in October 2001.
• Schalke’s record in two-legged knockout ties against English clubs is W1 L1. Their most successful UEFA Champions League campaign, in 2010/11, was emphatically ended by City’s neighbours Manchester United in the semi-finals (0-2 home, 1-4 away).
Manchester City
• City have been in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 every year since 2013/14, although they have won only two of those five previous ties. Twelve months ago a 4-0 away first-leg success at Basel effectively booked their place in the quarter-finals, Josep Guardiola’s side going through despite a subsequent 1-2 home reverse.
• The win at Basel was only City’s second away success in the round of 16; the other came at Dynamo Kyiv in 2015/16 (3-1), the only other tie they have won at this stage. They have lost all of their other three round of 16 away matches.
• This is City’s second game in a row against Bundesliga opponents; they beat Hoffenheim 2-1 in Manchester on matchday six, having won by the same scoreline in Germany. That made it six wins from their last seven matches against German clubs (D1), stretching back to a 1-0 loss at Bayern München in September 2014.
• The Citizens have won three of their last five games in Germany, losing only one; in contrast, they suffered five defeats in their first six visits, the exception that 2008 victory at Schalke.
• City have lost both two-legged contests against German clubs, UEFA Cup quarter-finals against Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1978/79 and Hamburg 30 years later.
• City’s best UEFA Champions League performance was reaching the 2015/16 semi-finals.
• The English champions opened this season with an unexpected 2-1 loss at home to Lyon – their third successive European defeat in Manchester – but won four of their next five fixtures, including a 6-0 home victory against Shakhtar Donetsk on matchday four that was their biggest win in UEFA club competition.
• City have won only five of their last 11 European matches, home and away – losing five. Away from home it is three wins in six matches (D1 L2).
Links and trivia
• Leroy Sané was a Schalke player between 2005 and joining City in 2016; he made 47 Bundesliga appearances between April 2014 and May 2016, scoring 11 goals.
• Matija Nastasić made 34 Premier League appearances for City between September 2012 and August 2014, when he joined Schalke, initially on loan.
• Sané scored Schalke’s goal in a 1-1 draw against Wolfsburg in April 2015; Kevin De Bruyne was on target for Wolfsburg.
• Have also played in Germany:
Kevin De Bruyne (Werder Bremen 2012/13, Wolfsburg 2014–15)
İlkay Gündoğan (Bochum 2008, Nürnberg 2009–11, Borussia Dortmund 2011–16)
Vincent Kompany (Hamburg 2006–08)
• Have also played in England:
Abdul Rahman Baba (Chelsea 2015/16)
Nabil Bentaleb (Tottenham 2013–16)
Franco Di Santo (Chelsea 2008–09, Blackburn 2009/10, Wigan 2010–13)
Benjamin Stambouli (Tottenham 2014/15)
Sascha Riether (Fulham 2012–14)
Omar Mascarell (Derby 2014/15)
Gudio Burgstaller (Cardiff 2014)
• Sergio Agüero scored one goal and set up two more in Atlético Madrid’s 4-0 defeat of Schalke in the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round second leg.
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