Chelsea aim to spike Schalke's fine start

FC Schalke 04 will bid to extend their winning start in Group E to three games when they take on Chelsea FC, with things looking brighter for the 2012 UEFA Champions League winners after victory at FC Steaua Bucureşti on matchday two.

• Schalke followed their 3-0 home victory over Steaua on the opening night with a 1-0 win at FC Basel 1893 at the same time as Chelsea were winning 4-0 in Romania. José Mourinho's team therefore have three points, having lost 2-1 at home to Basel on matchday one.

Previous meetings
• These teams last met in the 2007/08 group stage, with the game in Germany ending scoreless; Chelsea were 2-0 victors at Stamford Bridge with goals from Florent Malouda (4) and Didier Drogba (47).

• The lineups in Gelsenkirchen on 6 November 2007 were:
Schalke: Neuer, Westermann, Bordon, Larsen, Rakitić, Jones, Asamoah, Özil (Løvenkrands 60), Rafinha, Krstajić, Bajramović.
Chelsea: Čech (Cudicini 46), Belletti (Mikel 64), Alex, Carvalho, Bridge, J Cole, Makelele, Essien, Lampard, Malouda (Wright-Phillips 78), Drogba.

• Before that draw Schalke had won all three home fixtures against English opponents, a sequence spanning 43 years. It started with a first round European Champion Clubs' Cup tie in 1958/59 when they overcame Wolverhampton Wanderers FC 2-1.

• The German team followed the 2007 game with Chelsea by failing to score against their next two English visitors, going down 2-0 to both Manchester City FC in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup group stage and Manchester United FC in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg.

• They faced another English side in last season's group stage, winning 2-0 at Arsenal FC before a 2-2 draw in Gelsenkirchen. Schalke's home record against English teams is W3 D2 L2.

• Chelsea lost 2-1 at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2011/12 group stage, their fourth defeat in six away games against Bundesliga sides. Their sole victory came at VfB Stuttgart in the 2003/04 round of 16, winning 1-0.

• Chelsea's overall record against Bundesliga opponents is W7 D4 L4. They overcame FC Bayern München in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League final, winning 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in their opponents' own Fußball Arena München stadium to lift the trophy for the first time.

• The London club met Bayern again in the UEFA Super Cup in August, losing 5-4 on spot kicks after a 2-2 draw at Prague's Stadion Eden.

• Chelsea defeated German opposition to win the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final in May 1998, Gianfranco Zola scoring the only goal against Stuttgart in Solna.

Match background
• In their fifth group stage campaign, Schalke have emerged as winners of their section in their past two UEFA Champions League participations.

• Apart from the 2-2 draw with Arsenal last season, Schalke gained a point in a 2-2 home draw with Montpellier Hérault SC and also beat Olympiacos 1-0 there. In the round of 16 they looked set to make further progress after drawing 1-1 at Galatasaray AŞ but then lost 3-2 at home.

• The German club have lost only two of their last 13 home fixtures in the competition, qualifying included, winning eight. Schalke drew 1-1 at home to PAOK FC in this season's play-offs, going through with a 3-2 away win.

• Chelsea have finished as winners of their section in seven of their last ten campaigns and qualified for the knockout rounds as runners-up in two of the other years.

• Last year though they became the first UEFA Champions League holders to have their title defence ended in the group stage, losing at FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Juventus after a 4-0 victory at FC Nordsjælland.

• Compensation came swiftly however, with Chelsea going on to beat SL Benfica 2-1 in the UEFA Europa League final in Amsterdam thanks to Branislav Ivanović's header in the last minute of added time.

• With their win in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League, Chelsea thus became the first side to win UEFA's two top club competitions in reverse order in successive seasons. They also became only the fourth side to win all three of UEFA's major club competitions.

• Mourinho, who has lifted the trophy with both FC Porto (2004) and FC Internazionale Milano (2010), is bidding to become the first manager to win the European Cup with three different teams. Only Bob Paisley (Liverpool FC 1977, 1978, 1981) has won the trophy three times as a coach.

Team ties
• André Schürrle scored for 1. FSV Mainz 05 and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in two victories against Schalke between 2009 and 2013 before his move to London this summer. His other six games against the Royal Blues resulted in two draws and four defeats.

• Schürrle is an international colleague of Benedikt Höwedes, Julian Draxler, Dennis Aogo and Roman Neustädter for Germany.

• Substitute Schürrle scored in Germany's 3-2 win over Ramires' Brazil in a Stuttgart friendly on 10 August 2011. Aogo and Höwedes were on the bench for the home team.

• Kevin-Prince Boateng played for Portsmouth FC in the 2010 FA Cup final against Chelsea, losing 1-0. Petr Čech, Ivanović, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard all lined up in opposition.

• Boateng also played for Tottenham Hotspur FC between 2007 and 2010 and with both clubs lost all three games against the Stamford Bridge side.

• Demba Ba scored in TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's 3-2 win against Schalke on 23 May 2009. In four years with Hoffenheim from 2007 he was unbeaten against Schalke, winning two and drawing two.

• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored as the Netherlands lost 4-2 in a friendly against Belgium in Brussels on 15 August 2012. Eden Hazard and Kevin de Bruyne played for the home team.

• De Bruyne was on loan at SV Werder Bremen in 2012/13, losing both games against Schalke.

• Huntelaar and Marko van Ginkel play together for the Netherlands; John Obi Mikel and Chinedu Obasi are team-mates for Nigeria.

• Mark Schwarzer has German parents and both Australian and German citizenship. He played for 1. FC Dynamo Dresden in 1994/95 and 1. FC Kaiserslautern the following season, making a total of six Bundesliga appearances.