Leverkusen v Sporting CP background

Beaten by Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the first leg, Sporting Clube de Portugal must register a first win on German soil in the return if they are to stand any chance of reaching the UEFA Europa League round of 16.

Previous meetings
• Karim Bellarabi, who also rattled the upright late on, scored the only goal with an improvised finish after 26 minutes. Sporting's Rúben Semedo was dismissed with just over a quarter of an hour remaining.

• The teams had met on four occasions, all in the UEFA Champions League group stage, prior to the round of 32 first leg. Leverkusen won three of those games – the other ended 0-0.

• In the 1997/98 competition, Christoph Daum's Leverkusen beat Octávio Machado's Sporting 2-0 in Lisbon and overcame a side led by Francisco Vital 4-1 in Germany.

• Daum was also in charge in 2000/01, when the Werkself defeated Augusto Inácio's Sporting 3-2 at the BayArena, but had been replaced by Rudi Völler by the time the sides drew 0-0 in the return fixture.

• Sporting have won just two of their 23 games against German opposition: W2 D6 L15 (W0 D1 L10 in Germany).

• Leverkusen's 15 matches against Portuguese clubs have ended W6 D4 L5 (W4 D1 L2 at home).

Form guide
• Leverkusen are unbeaten in five European home games (W3 D2).

• Sporting's 4-2 success at FC Lokomotiv Moskva on matchday five ended their 17-game wait for a European away win (D5 L12).

• Leverkusen were beaten home and away by Sporting's local rivals SL Benfica – coached by current Sporting boss Jorge Jesus – the last time they reached the round of 32, in 2012/13. Leverkusen got the better of RCD Espanyol on penalties in the two-legged 1988 UEFA Cup final.

• Sporting bowed out to another German side – VfL Wolfsburg – in last season's round of 32. In their best run in this competition, they reached the 2005 UEFA Cup final but lost 3-1 to PFC CSKA Moskva at their own Estadio José Alvalade.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Lisbon to Leverkusen is not far off 1,900km.

• Sporting defender João Pereira turns 32 on the day of the game. He played in Germany with Hannover 96 in the spring of 2015.

The coaches
• In charge of Leverkusen since summer 2014, Roger Schmidt worked as a mechanical engineer while playing amateur football. He coached in the German lower leagues but made his name at FC Salzburg, who he led to a domestic double in 2013/14 and the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League that same season.

• A losing UEFA Europa League finalist with Benfica in 2013 and 2014, Jesus unexpectedly left the Eagles for Sporting last summer. He started his playing career at Sporting – where his father Virgolino had also been on the books – and had coached Benfica since June 2009.

Penalty shoot-outs
• Leverkusen's record in three UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L2:
W 3-2 N v RCD Espanyol (1987/88 UEFA Cup final)
L 5-3 A v FC Tirol Innsbruck (1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup quarter-finals)
L 3-2 A v Club Atlético de Madrid (2014/15 UEFA Champions League round of 16)

• Sporting have lost both of their previous UEFA penalty shoot-outs:
L 5-3 A v FC Dinamo Minsk (1984/85 UEFA Cup second round)
L 4-3 A v SSC Napoli (1989/90 UEFA Cup first round)