Rosenborg keen to see Schalke off

While Rosenborg BK have always faced long odds in the UEFA Champions League their results show they have generally been competitive in home fixtures. They will be looking to carry on in that vein when they welcome FC Schalke 04 to the Lerkendal stadium on Matchday 2.

• While the home side would have been more than satisfied with their opening performance in Group B, a 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Schalke will be looking to make amends after slipping to a 1-0 home loss to Valencia CF on Matchday 1.

• The reigning Norwegian champions are unbeaten in three home games in club competition against opponents from the Bundesliga and that is an achievement of some merit because the teams they were facing were FC Bayern München (twice) and BV Borussia Dortmund.

• The games were in the UEFA Champions League group stages and came in successive seasons. In 1999/00 they drew 2-2 with Dortmund in the first group stage, recovering well after going 2-0 down early on. A 3-0 away win against the same opponents (which shares top billing as Rosenborg’s best-ever away win in the UEFA Champions League) helped them win the section, advancing to the second group stage where they faced Bayern and drew 1-1 at home. It was the only point the Trondheim club picked up while the Munich team advanced to the semi-finals.

• A year later Rosenborg met Bayern again in the group stage and this was the season when the German giants would go on to the Milan final where they beat Valencia CF on penalties to record their fourth European Champion Clubs’ Cup triumph. Only a Jens Jeremies equaliser with two minutes remaining denied Rosenborg a famous scalp at the Lerkendal on that occasion.

• In the 2001/02 campaign they beat Celtic FC 2-0 at home on Matchday 5 with Harald Brattbakk scoring both goals against his former club. That was to prove their last home win in the UEFA Champions League with six of the following nine games ending all-square.

• In the qualifying rounds coach Knut Tørum saw his team come through with some ease, winning home and away against FC Astana and Tampere United.

• Schalke have never met a team from Norway in continental club competition. The Bundesliga runners-up, who are in their third participation in the UEFA Champions League, have won on just one occasion in their six group matches on foreign soil. That came on Matchday 4 in 2001/02 when they trounced RCD Mallorca 4-0, having lost at home to the same opponents three weeks before. Their next best result came on Matchday 3 in 2005/06 when they drew 3-3 in Istanbul against Fenerbahçe SK, scoring their three goals in the space of 18 second-half minures.

• In the other game in Group B Valencia play host to Chelsea.