Schalke seek solace in Portuguese triumphs

FC Schalke 04 have twice met Portuguese opponents in UEFA competition and emerged with an aggregate victory in each case. They are hoping to make it three out of three as they take on FC Porto in the UEFA Champions League first knockout round, the first time they have qualified for this stage.

• Porto were one of those earlier victims, the teams coming face to face in the 1976/77 UEFA Cup first round. Schalke drew 2-2 away from home and then had the better of a 3-2 thriller in the return. In the third round of the same competition 21 years later, Schalke first earned a goalless draw away to SC Braga before winning 2-0 at the Parkstadion.

• Mirko Slomka's team will be hoping to carry on in the same vein as when they left the competition before the winter break when they swept Rosenborg BK aside at the Arena AufSchalke with three first-half goals to finish in second place in Group B.

• Schalke's third participation in Europe's greatest competition began on the wrong foot with a home defeat against Valencia CF. Their other home game ended 0-0 with section winners Chelsea FC, who held a four-point advantage over the German side at the conclusion of the section.

• Porto have good recent memories of trips to Germany, not least at Schalke's own stadium in 2004. Playing there in the UEFA Champions League final, they became European champions for the second time with a 3-0 victory against AS Monaco FC.

• Porto will also take heart from their most recent away appearances against German sides. They won 3-1 at Hamburger SV in the group stage of last season's UEFA Champions League with Lucho González, Lisandro López and substitute Bruno Moraes on the scoresheet. It was one of three victories in their last four journeys to face German clubs.

• They lost away to FC Bayern München in the 1999/00 UEFA Champions League quarter-final – a result that meant the bowed out of the competition – but in the group stage of the same season they won 1-0 away to Hertha BSC Berlin. In the 1993/94 group stage they earned a memorable 5-0 win at Werder Bremen, three seasons after drawing 1-1 at Bayern in a European Champions Clubs' Cup quarter-final.

• It was against the Munich giants in 1986/87 that the Dragons enjoyed one of their finest achievements, winning their first European Cup. Inspired by Paolo Futre, they scored twice in the last 13 minutes of the Vienna final to lift the trophy after the Bavarian side had taken a first-half lead.

• Porto's three UEFA Champions League wins in Germany are the only ones by any Portuguese side – out of a total of 18 matches – in the history of the European Champions Clubs' Cup.

• Porto lost their first four ties against German opposition. In total they have played eleven games in Germany, recording three victories, three draws and five defeats.

• Jesualdo Ferreira's team lost their final away game in Group A, 4-1 at Liverpool FC, but still finished one point ahead of the Merseyside club at the top of the section. They won away at Beşiktaş JK through a Ricardo Quaresma goal in added time and also drew 1-1 at Olympique de Marseille.