Barcelona threat looms over Leverkusen

FC Barcelona welcome Bayer 04 Leverkusen to the Camp Nou bidding to secure their place in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals for the fifth year running.

• Leverkusen are looking to reach the last eight for the first time since 2001/02, when they advanced to the final before losing to Real Madrid CF, although to do so they must overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit.

Previous meetings
• Leverkusen had never faced Spanish opponents before taking on Barcelona in the quarter-finals of their triumphant 1987/88 UEFA Cup campaign. Milton Tita scored the tie's only goal past Andoni Zubizarreta, now Barcelona's sporting director, in the Camp Nou second leg and Erich Ribbeck's side went on to beat RCD Espanyol in the final.

• These teams traded 2-1 home wins when they met again in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League first group stage, with Michael Ballack lining up against Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández.

• Barcelona won 2-1 in Leverkusen and 2-0 at home in the following season's second group stage. Puyol, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta featured for the Azulgrana.

Match background
• Barcelona's home record both in the UEFA Champions League and against German opposition underlines the size of the task facing a Leverkusen side without an away victory in the competition in a decade.

• Josep Guardiola's men are unbeaten in 13 European home matches dating back to October 2009, with 11 wins and two draws since then.

• Barcelona beat VfB Stuttgart 4-0 at home at this stage of the 2009/10 campaign and have won their last nine Camp Nou encounters with German visitors, scoring 24 goals and conceding four.

• Since beating Maccabi Haifa FC 2-0 in October 2002, Leverkusen have failed to win on the road in the UEFA Champions League, their record reading W0 D3 L9.

• Leverkusen have already lost on Spanish soil this season, 3-1 at Valencia CF on matchday four. Ballack was in his first spell with the club when they last prevailed in Spain; he scored in a 3-1 success at RC Deportivo La Coruña in 2001/02.

• Barcelona have progressed 31 out of the 33 times they won the away first leg in UEFA competition, most recently against Real Madrid CF in last year's semi-finals. While they have never won an away first leg 3-1, they have let a two-goal advantage slip, a 4-2 win at FC Metz preceding a 4-1 home reverse in the 1984/85 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round.

• Leverkusen have lost the first leg at home on seven occasions, and have gone out on aggregate every time.

Team ties
• Guardiola's first four appearances in Europe's premier club competition as a player came against FC Hansa Rostock and 1. FC Kaiserslautern in autumn 1991. Barcelona, that season's eventual winners, won both home legs but lost both away.

• Ballack was in the Chelsea FC side denied a 2008/09 UEFA Champions League final place by Iniesta's added-time equaliser in a 1-1 draw in London that earned Barcelona an away-goals semi-final victory. Ballack helped Chelsea finish above Barcelona in the 2006/07 group stage with a 1-0 home win and 2-2 away draw.

• In the UEFA EURO 2008 final Ballack's Germany lost 1-0 to the Spain of Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and Cesc Fàbregas. Puyol's header earned Spain another 1-0 win against Germany in the 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-finals.

• Eren Derdiyok and Tranquillo Barnetta helped Switzerland shock Spain 1-0 in their opening match in South Africa. Besides Puyol, Xavi and Iniesta, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, David Villa and Pedro Rodríguez were also in Spain's side.

• Derdiyok and Barnetta succumbed 1-0 to Alexis Sánchez's Chile in their next match.

• Michal Kadlec was in the Czech Republic team beaten in a UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier in March 2011 by the two Villa goals with which the Barcelona striker became Spain's record scorer.

• Alves and Renato Augusto are Brazil team-mates. They lined up together in a 3-2 friendly loss to Germany in August 2011, with Leverkusen's André Schürrle and Simon Rolfes featuring as substitutes for Germany and the former scoring.