Lyon stand in Schalke's path

Having recorded wins in their two previous home matches, FC Schalke 04 know that a third victory would take them above opponents Olympique Lyonnais and top of UEFA Champions League Group B.

• The German side recorded a goalless draw at Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC on Matchday 4 to move on to seven points, two behind a Lyon side whose three-game winning streak was brought to a spectacular end with a 4-3 defeat at SL Benfica.

Previous meetings
• The sides had not met before their 14 September contest, Lyon's bid to progress to the knockout rounds for an eighth successive season getting off to a winning start thanks to Michel Bastos's first-half strike. The away team were reduced to ten men when Benedikt Höwedes was shown a red card seven minutes before the break.

• Schalke have won both their previous two home games against French opponents, beating AS Nancy-Lorraine 1-0 in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup first round – although they lost the return 3-1 in France – and Paris Saint-Germain FC 3-1 in the group stage of the 2008/09 competition.

• Lyon lost the last time they were in Germany – a 1-0 reverse against FC Bayern München in last season's semi-final first leg en route to a 4-0 aggregate defeat – to end a five-match unbeaten run that included four successive wins. Before that they had lost five in a row without scoring a single goal.

Match background
• Schalke bounced back from their opening defeat at Lyon with a 2-0 win against Benfica on Matchday 2 thanks to goals in the last 17 minutes from Jefferson Farfán and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

• Three weeks later Raúl González, the record scorer in UEFA Champions League history, struck his first two goals in the competition for Schalke to engineer a 3-1 defeat of Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC. His fellow Spaniard, José Manuel Jurado, added a third.

• On Matchday 2, Lyon travelled to Israel where Bastos scored twice in a 3-1 win at Hapoel. A goal in each half from Jimmy Briand and Lisandro proved enough to see off Benfica in their third game.

• While Schalke were being held at Hapoel last time out Lyon were falling 4-0 behind at Benfica, late goals from Yoann Gourcuff, Bafétimbi Gomis and Dejan Lovren not enough to rescue a point.

• Although Lyon are on course to reach the knockout rounds for the eighth season in a row, they have not finished as group winners since 2006/07.

• In their last UEFA Champions League campaign, 2007/08, Schalke progressed beyond the group stage for the first time in three attempts. They eventually reached the quarter-finals when they lost to FC Barcelona 1-0 both home and away.

Team ties
• Raúl was an unused substitute for Real Madrid CF in last season's round of 16 first leg at Stade de Gerland, which Lyon won 1-0. The striker played in four UEFA Champions League games against the French side while at Madrid and was never on the winning side; both the home games were drawn, with the away games ending in defeat. Raúl also failed to score.

• In the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup Schalke coach Felix Magath, then in charge of VfB Stuttgart, got the better of Claude Puel's LOSC Lille Métropole, overturning a 1-0 away defeat with a 2-0 win in Germany.

• Pape Diakhaté helped Nancy eliminate Schalke 3-2 on aggregate in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup first round.

• Lisandro scored FC Porto's goal in a 1-0 defeat of Schalke in the 2007/08 round of 16 second leg. However, he missed in the ensuing penalty shoot-out after the tie had finished 1-1 on aggregate, the German team prevailing 4-1.

• Farfán faced Lyon twice while at PSV, his team winning 4-2 on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate draw in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals before losing 5-0 over two legs in the last 16 a year later.

• Lovren and Ivan Rakitić are international team-mates for Croatia.

• Frank Fahrenhorst was a second-half substitute in SV Werder Bremen's 7-2 defeat at Lyon in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg.