Malmö wary of Real Madrid machine

Real Madrid CF put down an early marker in Group A with a 4-0 dismissal of FC Shakhtar Donetsk. Malmö FF will be wary of their illustrious opponents, who they are meeting for the first time.

Match background 

Malmö
• The Swedish champions, competing in the UEFA Champions League group stage for a second successive season having made their debut in 2014/15, lost 2-0 at Paris Saint-Germain on matchday one.

• The Himmelsblått beat Celtic FC 2-0 at home in the play-off second leg to advance 4-3 on aggregate. A 3-0 home win against FC Salzburg in the third qualifying round saw them through 3-2 on aggregate. In the second qualifying round a 0-0 draw at home to FK Žalgiris Vilnius was followed by a 1-0 win away.

• Malmö, European Cup runners-up in 1979, have finished fourth on the two previous occasions they reached a UEFA competition group stage.

• In last season's Group A they were defending an unbeaten eight-game home sequence in UEFA competition until matchday four, when they were beaten 2-0 by Club Atlético de Madrid. They also went down at home to Juventus and have lost their last five UEFA Champions League group matches in succession.

• Malmö's only other assignment with Spanish opponents was also against Atlético, in the 1966/67 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round. Luis Aragonés scored in both legs as Atlético won 2-0 away and 3-1 at home.

Real Madrid
• This is the Whites' first encounter with a Swedish club. 

• The Spanish giants won all three away group fixtures last season; the previous campaign they won two and drew the other. Their unbeaten away group run stands at seven, since a 2-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund in 2012/13.

• The 0-0 draw at Atlético in last season's quarter-finals was only the second time in 30 UEFA Champions League away fixtures that Madrid had failed to score, since going down 1-0 at Olympique Lyonnais in the 2009/10 round of 16. In that sequence they have suffered only six defeats.

• In 2014/15, the ten-time winners advanced to a fifth successive semi-final, where they lost to Juventus (1-2 away, 1-1 home).

Coach and player links
• Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice past Johan Wiland in Madrid's 4-0 home win over FC København on matchday two in 2013/14. Both he and Luka Modrić scored past the goalkeeper in a 2-0 away win.

• Markus Rosenberg spent 2010/11 season at Real Racing Club, on loan from SV Werder Bremen, and finished top scorer with nine goals, one coming in a 6–1 defeat at Madrid.

• Rosenberg also scored in Bremen's 3-2 home win over Madrid in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage. 

• A youth player at FC Bayern München, Oscar Lewicki trained with the first team who included Toni Kroos.

• Sergio Ramos scored for Spain against Rosenberg's Sweden in a UEFA EURO 2008 qualifier at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu on 17 November 2007. Malmö sporting director Daniel Andersson was also in the lineup.

• Rafaël Varane scored the winner in France's 1-0 friendly win over Sweden at Stade Vélodrome on 18 November 2014.

• As Helsingborg coach Åge Hareide lost twice to Levante UD (0-1a, 1-3h) in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League group stage, while with Rosenborg BK in 2003/04 he suffered a UEFA Champions League third qualifying round defeat by RC Deportivo La Coruña (0-0 h, 0-1 a)

• Guillermo Molins played in the Spanish league for Real Betis Balompié, on loan from RSC Anderlecht, in 2013.

• Jo Inge Berget, Magnus Wolff Eikrem and Martin Ødegaard are Norway team-mates.

Match facts

Malmö
• Malmö have lost four of their 26 Allsvenkan fixtures in 2015 – as many defeats as they suffered last term, when they won the title.

• Malmö are unbeaten at home in 11 games (W7 D4) in all competitions since a 3-0 Allsvenkan loss against BK Häcken on 24 May.

• Rasmus Bengtsson was substituted 23 minutes into Malmö's 2-0 triumph over Djurgårdens IF on 20 September after sustaining an ankle injury. He missed the subsequent 4-3 success against Falkenbergs FF and and Saturday's goalless draw at Halmstads BK.

Real Madrid
• Ronaldo became the UEFA Champions League's all-time top scorer with his hat-trick on matchday one, taking his total number of goals in the competition to 80. He has four hat-tricks, fewer only than Lionel Messi (five).

• Before being held 0-0 by Málaga CF on Saturday, Madrid had won their previous five games in all competitions since opening the season with a 0-0 draw at Real Sporting de Gijon.

• Karim Benzema scored in each of those victories, six goals in total.

• Keylor Navas's run of minutes without conceding a goal this term ended at 517 as the Merengues prevailed 2-1 at Athletic Club on 23 September. He was five minutes shy of Miguel Ángel's club Liga record of 423, set in 1975.

• Ronaldo needs three goals to break Raúl González's club record of 323 in all competitions.

• Gareth Bale (calf) and Sergio Ramos (shoulder) are doubtful after being replaced in the defeat of Shakhtar, while Danilo (foot) and James Rodríguez (knee) have not played since 5 and 8 September respectively and Pepe picked up a muscular injury against Athletic.