Schalke next to face free-scoring Madrid

Real Madrid CF have played 52 European games against ten different German opponents but the UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie will be their first ever meeting with FC Schalke 04.

• The German side, who ensured their qualifying place with a matchday six victory, are in the knockout rounds for the second successive season – the first time they have managed that feat. 

• Madrid – in the round of 16 for the 11th successive season – were the competition's leading scorers in the group stage with 20 goals. Cristiano Ronaldo contributed nine, a group stage record.

Previous meetings
• Schalke have won only two of their last 11 encounters against Spanish opponents, suffering five defeats. They have played 23 UEFA games against Liga clubs with the record W7 D7 L9 (W5 D2 L4 at home). They have not won in their last seven games in Spain since a 3-0 victory at RCD Espanyol in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 32.

• The Royal Blues have twice faced Spanish teams in knockout ties in the last three years. They beat Valencia CF 3-1 at home after a 1-1 draw away in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League round of 16 en route to the semi-final. In the 2011/12 UEFA Cup quarter-finals Schalke lost 4-2 at home to Athletic Club and then drew 2-2 away.

• Madrid have prevailed just once in 25 previous visits to German opposition, losing 18 times, including a 4-1 loss at Borussia Dortmund in last season's semi-final first leg.

• The solitary victory was a 3-2 win against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2000/01 though they did lift the European Champion Clubs' Cup on German soil in 1959, beating French side Stade de Reims 2-0 at Stuttgart's Neckarstadion.

• Madrid have defeated three German sides in European finals, beating Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in the 1960 European Cup and Leverkusen 2-1 in the 2002 UEFA Champions League, both in Glasgow; they also overcame 1. FC Köln 5-3 on aggregate in the 1986 UEFA Cup.

Match background
• Schalke began their Group E campaign with wins against FC Steaua Bucureşti (3-0) and at FC Basel 1893 (1-0) but then lost 3-0 home and away to Chelsea FC. A goalless draw at Steaua made victory essential in their concluding game, Jens Keller's men duly defeating Basel 2-0 to leapfrog their rivals into second.

• Ronaldo set the tone for Group B with a matchday one hat-trick as Madrid won 6-1 at Galatasaray AŞ. They also triumphed 2-0 at FC København and, though they were held 2-2 at Juventus, beat both at home, 4-0 and 2-1 respectively.

• Seeking a tenth European Cup, Madrid – whose coach Carlo Ancelotti is a four-time winner as player and coach – have fallen at the semi-final stage in the last three campaigns.

• Ancelotti's knockout record against German sides as coach and player is W4 D1 L4.

• Schalke lost in last season's round of 16, despite earning a 1-1 draw at Galatasaray with a Jermaine Jones goal. Roman Neustädter was on target in the Gelsenkirchen return, but his team went down 3-2.

• In the 2012/13 last 16, Madrid were held 1-1 at home by Manchester United, Ronaldo on target against his former club. The Portuguese scored the decisive goal at Old Trafford after Luka Modrić had cancelled out Sergio Ramos' own goal.

• Madrid have scored in all 21 UEFA Champions League away fixtures since going down 1-0 at Olympique Lyonnais in the 2009/10 round of 16, a tie they lost 2-1 on aggregate. Madrid have suffered only four defeats – three of them in Germany – in their last 21 European away games.

Team ties
• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored eight goals in 20 Liga games for Madrid in 2009.

• Raúl González, the UEFA Champions League's all-time top scorer with 71 goals and a three-time winner of the competition, scored five of those goals in a two-year spell with Schalke after transferring from Madrid in 2010. He had spent 16 years with the Spanish giants.

• Ronaldo scored Portugal's equaliser in a 1-1 friendly draw with Huntelaar's Netherlands at the Estádio do Algarve on 14 August 2013.

• Timo Hildebrand conceded seven goals in his two games against Madrid while with Valencia in 2007/08, his side losing 5-1 at Mestalla but triumphing 3-2 at the Santiago Bernabéu.

• Kevin-Prince Boateng, Modrić and Gareth Bale all played for Tottenham Hotspur FC between 2008 and 2009, winning the League Cup in 2008.

• Ádám Szalai played for Madrid's reserves between 2007 and January 2010.

• Felipe Santana was part of the Borussia Dortmund side who defeated Madrid in last season's semi-final.

• The injured Sami Khedira has played for Germany alongside Hildebrand, Benedikt Höwedes and Julian Draxler.

• At UEFA EURO 2012 Khedira and Höwedes were in the Germany team that beat Ronaldo, Pepe and Fábio Coentrão's Portugal 1-0 in Lviv.

• Ancelotti's AC Milan got the better of Schalke in the 2005/06 group stage, winning 3-2 at home after drawing 2-2 away.

• Khedira and Hildebrand were team-mates at VfB Stuttgart in 2005/06. Khedira's first two Bundesliga goals came against Schalke in a 3-0 home win on 29 October 2006; he scored 14 goals in 98 league games for Stuttgart. 

• Daniel Carvajal faced Schalke twice last season while at Leverkusen, winning one and drawing the other. The full-back scored once in 31 Bundesliga appearances.