Basel v Porto background

Paulo Sousa welcomes familiar opposition to St. Jakob-Park in the shape of FC Porto as his FC Basel 1983 team chase a first qualification in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds.

• The Portuguese coach knows Basel have to improve on their record against clubs from his home country, having scored in only three of ten fixtures against Liga sides.  

Match background

Basel
• Basel's last encounter with Portuguese opposition brought them their biggest win to date – a 3-0 defeat of Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League group stage, Fabian Schär 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 Vitória SC in the third qualifying round of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League. 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 CF who were 1-0 winners in Switzerland on matchday five, Basel's last home game. The other fixtures at St. Jakob-Park ended in victories against Liverpool FC (1-0) and PFC 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 FC Bayern München, having edged the home leg 1-0. They have reached the European Cup quarter-finals only once, in 1973/74, when they overcame Celtic FC 3-2 at home but lost 4-2 away.

Porto
• Porto have been beaten just once in six fixtures with Swiss teams, going down 3-0 at Grasshopper Club Zürich 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 FC Shakhtar Donetsk. On their travels they drew 2-2 at Shakhtar on matchday two and then won at Athletic Club (2-0) and FC 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 FC in the second leg of last season's UEFA Europa League quarter-final. They went out 4-2 on aggregate.

• In their 19th UEFA Champions League 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 FC after accounting for Club Atlético de Madrid on away goals.

Coach and player links
• During his playing days, Sousa faced Porto 12 times while at SL Benfica (seven matches), Sporting (four) and Panathinaikos FC (one), registering two wins, four draws and six defeats. The only UEFA Champions League game was a 0-0 draw in the 2001/02 second group stage with Panathinaikos.

• Ricardo Quaresma and Walter Samuel were team-mates at FC Internazionale Milano between 2008 and 2010.

• Samuel met Porto twice with Inter in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage, prevailing 2-1 at home after losing 2-0 in Portugal.

• Quaresma was a colleague of Matías Delgado at Beşiktaş JK in 2010/11.

• Jackson Martínez netted twice in Colombia's 4-1 win over Yoichiro Kakitani's Japan in the 2014 FIFA World Cup group stage in Cuiaba. Juan Quintero also featured for the South Americans.

• Derlis González had a brief spell with Benfica's youth team in 2012/13.

Match facts

Basel
• Fabian Schär serves a one-match ban; González, Marek Suchý and Taulant Xhaka are a booking away from a suspension.

• Shkelzen Gashi, top scorer in Switzerland last season for Grasshopper Club Zürich, extended his Super League-leading tally to 13 with Basel's equaliser against FC Sion on Saturday. The hosts were down to ten men following Tomáš Vaclík's dismissal just before half-time.

• Basel won 4-2 at Grasshoppers on 8 February, their first competitive fixture since matchday six.

• The Swiss champions are nine league games unbeaten, winning seven.

• Basel won five of their seven friendlies during a winter break in which they spent time in Marbella, Spain.
Results: FC Hégenheim (W9-0), Karlsruher SC (2-2), Fortuna Düsseldorf (W2-1), FC Dynamo Kyiv (W3-2), SC Freiburg (W2-0), FC Schaffhausen (W2-1), TSV Eintracht Braunschweig (L2-0).

• January signing Adama Traoré is sidelined with a thigh injury sustained in Marbella.

• Ivan Ivanov, out since January 2014 because of a knee injury, is Basel's only long-term absentee.

UEFA Champions League squad changes
• In: Adama Traoré (Vitória SC)
• Out: Naser Aliji (FC Vaduz, loan), Marcelo Díaz (Hamburger SV), Michael Goncalves (FC Wil, loan), Geoffroy Serey Die (VfB Stuttgart), Giovanni Sio (SC Bastia, loan)

Porto
• Iván Marcano and Maicon are both a booking away from a suspension.

• Hernâni made his Porto debut in Friday's 1-0 victory at home to Vitória SC, the team he joined from in January.

• Porto have played 13 games in all competitions since matchday six, their record reading: W10 D1 L2.

• Both of those defeats were in the Liga, their first in the league since May – 2-0 at home to SL Benfica (14 December) and 1-0 at CS Marítimo (25 January).

• The Dragons finished top of a Portuguese League Cup group containing SC Braga, A. Académica de Coimbra, CF União and Rio Ave FC, winning three and drawing one of their four fixtures. They face Marítimo in the semi-finals on 2 April.

• Jackson Martínez has scored 12 goals in his last 13 appearances in all competitions.

• The Colombia striker registered twice against Académica on 28 January and in the process overtook Hulk as the highest scorer in matches played at the Estádio do Dragão with 45 goals. He extended that record four days later by finding the net in a 5-0 home victory over FC Paços de Ferreira.

• Helton returned for Porto's League Cup fixture against Madeira outfit União on 13 January, his first match since suffering an Achilles tendon injury on 16 March 2014.

• Adrián López sustained a muscle tear versus Braga on 21 January and was removed from Porto's UEFA Champions League squad.

• Yacine Brahimi made four appearances in Equatorial Guinea as Algeria reached the quarter-finals of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

• Gonçalo Paciência − son of Domingos Paciência, who scored 106 times in 263 league appearances for Porto across two spells – made his senior debut against Braga and added his first goal at home to Académica a week later.

UEFA Champions League squad changes
• In: Hernâni (Vitória SC), Helton, Diego Reyes
• Out: Adrián López, Andrés Fernández, Ivo Rodrigues (Vitória SC, loan), Kelvin (SE Palmeiras, loan), Tomás Mota