UCL PREVIEW: Schalke hoping to avoid another Real rout

Real Madrid start the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League (UCL) with a return trip to face German side Schalke 04 on Wednesday.

Last season saw Real come back from the first leg of their last 16 tie at the Veltins Arena with a 6-1 away win which all but sealed qualification into the quarterfinals.

One year later, Schalke hope they have learned enough to avoid another rout when they meet again.

While a repeat performance is highly unlikely this time around, the UCL title holders are still clear favourites to go through against an opponent with injury worries.

Basel host Porto in Wednesday’s other game.

Neither are European giants, but this tie should be an entertaining and attacking affair.

Basel qualified from a group containing both Liverpool and Real Madrid, while Porto didn’t lose a single game on their way to the knockout stages.

The Portuguese team certainly have more star players and head into this match as favourites, but they should be mindful of Basel’s slick passing game which helped them survive the first round.

Porto can ask Liverpool!

Below are match backgrounds to Wednesday’s games.

SCHALKE V REAL

• Schalke have won only two of their last 15 encounters against Spanish opponents, suffering eight defeats. They have played 25 UEFA games against Liga clubs with the record W7 D7 L11 (W5 D2 L5 at home) and have not won in Spain since a 3-0 victory at Espanyol in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 32.
• The Royal Blues have faced Spanish teams in knockout ties on three occasions in the last four years. They beat Valencia 3-1 at home after a 1-1 draw away in the 2010/11 UCL round of 16. In the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg Schalke lost 4-2 at home to Athletic Bilbao, going out 6-4 on aggregate.
• Schalke have won ten of their last 21 European home games, with five draws and six defeats.
• Substitute Max Meyer scored the only goal at Maribor on match day six to ensure the German side finished second in their group to qualify for the round of 16 for the third year running.
• At home the Konigsblauen drew 1-1 with Maribor, beat Sporting Lisbon 4-3 and lost 5-0 to Chelsea.
• Their best UCL campaign came in 2010/11 when they reached the semi-finals, losing 2-0 at home and 4-1 away to Manchester United.
• Madrid have won only three of their 27 trips to Germany, two of those victories coming last term when they faced three Bundesliga teams in successive knockout ties on their way to lifting the trophy.
• The Spanish side also won 4-0 at Bayern Munich in the semi-final second leg having lost 2-0 at Borussia Dortmund in their quarter-final second leg, prevailing 5-0 and 3-2 overall respectively. They have suffered 18 defeats away to German clubs.
• Madrid lifted the European Champion Clubs’ Cup on German soil in 1959, beating Reims 2-0 at Stuttgart’s Neckarstadion.
• Madrid have defeated three German sides in European finals, Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in the 1960 European Cup and Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in the 2002 UCL, both in Glasgow. They also overcame FC Cologne 5-3 on aggregate in the 1986 UEFA Cup.
• Madrid are trying to become the first team to retain the trophy in the UEFA Champions League era.
• The Blancos won their record tenth European Cup on May 24, 2014, beating Club Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra time through goals from Sergio Ramos, Bale, Marcelo and Ronaldo.
• Ancelotti’s men are on a nine-match winning streak in the UCL, scoring 25 goals and conceding three.
• They have won seven of their last nine away games in the competition, including victories over Ludogorets Razgrad (2-1), Liverpool (3-0) and Basel (1-0) in the group stage.
• The Merengues have failed to score in only one of the past 27 UCL away fixtures since going down 1-0 at Olympique Lyon in the 2009/10 round of 16, a tie they lost 2-1 on aggregate. They have suffered only five defeats – four of them in Germany – in their last 27 European away games.
• Ancelotti’s knockout record against German sides as coach and player is W8 D1 L4.

BASEL V PORTO

• Basel’s last encounter with Portuguese opposition brought them their biggest win to date – a 3-0 defeat of Sporting Lisbon in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League group stage, Fabian Schar opening the scoring.
• They were the first goals Basel had scored against Sporting in the sixth match between the teams, Schär’s strike coming after 473 blank minutes.
• Previously Basel had beaten just one Liga side, a 2-1 home victory over Vitoria SC in the third qualifying round of the 2008/09 UCL. Basel’s record at home is W2 D0 L3; overall it is W2 D3 L5.
• The Rot-Blauen finished second in Group B, 11 points behind Real Madrid who were 1-0 winners in Switzerland on match day five, Basel’s last home game. The other fixtures at St. Jakob-Park ended in victories against Liverpool (1-0) and Ludogorets Razgrad (4-0).
• The Madrid reverse was only Basel’s second in their 11 European home matches since the start of last season, seven of which were won.
• The Swiss title holders are in the last 16 of the modern UEFA Champions League for just the third time and will want to forget their most recent experience, in 2011/12, when they crashed 7-0 at Bayern Munich, having edged the home leg 1-0. They have reached the European Cup quarter-finals only once, in 1973/74, when they overcame Celtic 3-2 at home but lost 4-2 away.
• Porto have been beaten just once in six fixtures with Swiss teams, going down 3-0 at Grasshopper in their 1980/81 UEFA Cup second round second leg for a 3-2 aggregate defeat. They have won three of the other five games.
• Julen Lopetegui’s men came top of Group H, five points clear of Shakhtar Donetsk. On their travels they drew 2-2 at Shakhtar on match day two and then won at Athletic Bilbao (2-0) and BATE Borisov (3-0).
• Porto were unbeaten in the group with four victories and two draws and have lost only one of their last 14 European fixtures home and away, a 4-1 thrashing by Sevilla in the second leg of last season’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final. They went out 4-2 on aggregate.
• In their 19th UCL campaign, Porto are contesting their seventh round of 16 tie since lifting the trophy in 2004. They have lost five of those six ties, making it through to the quarter-finals just once, in 2008/09, when they were eliminated 3-2 on aggregate by Manchester United after accounting for Atletico Madrid on away goals.

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

PSG 1-1 Chelsea

Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 Bayern Munich