Real Madrid v Schalke background

Real Madrid CF can match the 12-game UEFA Champions League record for successive home wins and break the record for consecutive victories home and away if they again see off the challenge of FC Schalke 04 in the second leg of their round of 16 tie.

• The holders overcame Schalke 2-0 in Germany on 18 February, Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcelo scoring in either half. That was Madrid's tenth straight triumph in the UEFA Champions League proper, equalling FC Bayern München's competition record.

Previous meetings
• The teams are meeting at this stage for the second season running. Last year's fixture was as good as over after the first leg in Germany which Madrid dominated 6-1, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Ronaldo all netting twice with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar replying in added time. 

• Madrid also won the second leg 3-1, Ronaldo adding another two to his season's haul in the competition which eventually reached 17. 

• The lineups at the Santiago Bernabéu on 18 March 2014 were:
Madrid: Casillas, Nacho, Varane, Ramos (Carvajal 70), Coentrão, Illarramendi, Xabi Alonso (Casemiro 46), Jesé (Bale 8), Isco, Morata, Ronaldo.
Schalke: Fährmann, Hoogland, Höwedes (K Papadopoulos 58), Matip, Kolašinac, Obasi, Ayhan (Annan 81), Neustädter, Draxler, Meyer, Huntelaar (Szalai 46).

Match background

Madrid
• The Spanish side faced three Bundesliga clubs en route to lifting the trophy last term. In the quarter-finals they beat Borussia Dortmund 3-0 at home (3-2 on aggregate) and in the semis Bayern 1-0 at home (5-0 on aggregate).

• Madrid have defeated three German teams in European finals: Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 in the 1960 European Champion Clubs' Cup and Bayer 04 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.

• Madrid's 4-0 thrashing of PFC Ludogorets Razgrad on matchday six was their 11th straight home success in the UEFA Champions League, one fewer than the competition record set by Manchester United FC between 13 September 2006 and 29 April 2008.

• They also downed FC Basel 1893 (5-1) and Liverpool FC (1-0) on home turf in their 100% Group B campaign. In addition, Madrid won all six home games last season, scoring 17 goals and conceding three.

• They are unbeaten in 21 UEFA Champions League matches at the Santiago Bernabéu – winning 19 – dating back to April 2011, when they lost 2-0 to FC Barcelona in the semi-final first leg.

• The Blancos are trying to become the first side to retain the trophy in the UEFA Champions League era. They claimed their record tenth European Cup on 24 May 2014, defeating Club Atlético de Madrid 4-1 after extra time through strikes from Sergio Ramos, Bale, Marcelo and Ronaldo.

• Ancelotti's knockout record against German teams as coach and player is W8 D1 L4.

• Madrid have lost only one of the 29 UEFA competition ties in which they won the first leg away from home. The exception came against Odense BK in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup third round when a 3-2 away success preceded a 2-0 home reverse.

• Madrid's shoot-out record in European competition is W1 L2:
1-3 v FC Bayern München, 2011/12 UEFA Champions League semi-finals
3-1 v Juventus, 1986/87 European Cup second round
5-6 v FK Crvena zvezda, 1974/75 European Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals

Schalke
• Schalke have lost on all three visits to Madrid – two fixtures against Atlético preceded last season's Bernabéu encounter – and are without a win in their last eight games in Spain (D4 L4), since a 3-0 victory at RCD Espanyol in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup round of 32. 

• Leaving Madrid aside, the Royal Blues have tackled Spanish opposition in two other knockout ties in the past four years. They drew 1-1 at Valencia CF in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League round of 16, winning 3-1 at home. In the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals they drew 2-2 at Athletic Club after a 4-2 home defeat.

• They have played 26 UEFA competition matches against Liga clubs with the away record W2 D5 L6.

• Substitute Max Meyer got the only goal at NK Maribor on matchday six to ensure the German side finished second behind Chelsea FC in Group G to qualify for the round of 16 for the third year in a row.

• It was their first victory in six away games in the competition, since a 1-0 success at FC Basel 1893 on matchday two last term.

• The Königsblauen began the campaign with a 1-1 draw at Chelsea and also went down 4-2 at Sporting Clube de Portugal.

• Their best UEFA Champions League effort came in 2010/11 when they fell to Manchester United in the semi-finals, 2-0 at home and 4-1 away.

• Schalke have lost all four ties in which they succumbed at home in the first leg, and avoided defeat in just one of those second legs – that 2-2 draw at Athletic in 2011/12.

• Schalke's European shoot-out record is W2 L2:
4-1 v FC Porto, 2007/08 UEFA Champions League round of 16
1-3 v Brøndby IF, 2003/04 UEFA Cup second round
4-5 v SK Slavia Praha, 1998/99 UEFA Cup first round
4-1 v FC Internazionale Milano, 1996/97 UEFA Cup final

Coach and player links
• Huntelaar scored eight goals in 20 Liga outings for Madrid in 2009.

• Raúl González, formerly the UEFA Champions League's all-time top marksman with 71 goals and a three-time winner of this competition, notched five of those goals in a two-year stint with Schalke after transferring from Madrid in 2010; he had spent 16 years with the Merengues.

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

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

• Sami Khedira and Toni Kroos were part of Germany's victorious 2014 FIFA World Cup squad, alongside Benedikt Höwedes and Julian Draxler.

• Khedira, Kroos and Höwedes' Germany prevailed 4-0 against Ronaldo, Pepe and Fábio Coentrão's Portugal in the 2014 World Cup group stage in Salvador. Pepe was sent off; Draxler was an unused substitute.

• Kroos hit Germany's goal in the 1-0 friendly triumph over Spain at the Estadio de Balaídos, Vigo, in November 2014 with Khedira and Höwedes also on the winning side. Iker Casillas, Ramos and Isco started for Spain.

Match facts

Real Madrid
• Marcelo and Kroos will incur a suspension with their next booking.

• Madrid drew for the first time in the Liga this season on 1 March, 1-1 against Villarreal CF. They were beaten 1-0 at Athletic Club on Saturday, slipping to second in the standings following FC Barcelona's win, and have won only two of their last five league matches.

• Ronaldo's penalty against Villarreal meant he became the first player to score 30 or more goals in five consecutive Liga seasons.

• Four days after the first leg in Gelsenkirchen, the Portugal captain doubled the Whites' lead in a 2-0 win at Elche CF.

• Ramos has been out since sustaining a hamstring injury against Sevilla FC on 4 February. Khedira (also hamstring) has not featured since going off against Club Atlético de Madrid three days later.

• James Rodríguez fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot against Sevilla and will miss the second leg. Like Khedira, Modrić (out since 16 November, thigh) has resumed training.

Schalke
• Boateng is suspended; Marco Höger and Huntelaar are a booking away from a ban.

• Schalke had gone four games without a win in all competitions before Saturday's 3-1 home defeat of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

• They followed up their first-leg loss to Madrid by drawing 1-1 with SV Werder Bremen on 21 February.

• A week later the Royal Blues were beaten 3-0 at Borussia Dortmund. Huntelaar, recovered from the bruised shin he suffered against Madrid, returned to the side following the end of his four-game domestic suspension.

• Goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann was ruled out for the rest of the season after straining the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee on 8 January. Understudy Fabian Giefer has been out since 3 February with an adductor problem.

• Joel Matip (out since 21 February, thigh) and Jan Kirchhoff, who has missed the last two games because of an Achilles tendon injury, have been out, although the former returned as a substitute against Hoffenheim.

• Chinedu Obasi (out since December, tibia), Draxler (31 October, thigh) and Jefferson Farfán (early July, knee) are long-term absentees. Leon Goretzka (5 July, hamstring) came on as a substitute on Saturday, while Sead Kolašinac (23 August, knee) has resumed full training.