Porto v Schalke facts

The leading pair in Group D, Porto and Schalke can each – or both – book their places in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 when they meet at the Estádio do Dragão on matchday five.

• The matchday one fixture in Germany finished 1-1, Breel Embolo's 64th-minute opener for the home side cancelled out by an Otávio penalty 11 minutes later.

• Porto have won all three games since and have ten points in the section, two more than Schalke, who are also unbeaten. The German club hold a four-point cushion over third-placed Galatasaray, with Lokomotiv Moskva already eliminated having lost all four matches.

• That means Porto will be through with a draw, or if Galatasaray fail to win at Lokomotiv, and they will clinch first place with victory. Schalke will be through with a win, or if Galatasaray do not win in Moscow.

Previous meetings
• It was Schalke who came out on top in a penalty shoot-out between the teams in the 2007/08 round of 16, after Kevin Kuranyi's fourth-minute first-leg goal in Gelsenkirchen had been cancelled out by Lisandro López with only four minutes to play in Porto. The German side held their nerve in the shoot-out, converting all of their kicks to win 4-1.

• The German club had also had the better of the sides' other tie, in the 1976/77 UEFA Cup first round, even after letting slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 in the away first leg. Schalke progressed with a 3-2 home victory, scoring twice in the last four minutes to secure the win.

Form guide
Porto
• After being held 1-1 at Schalke, Porto edged to a 1-0 win at home against Galatasaray on matchday two before beating Lokomotiv in Russia (3-1) and Portugal (4-1).

• Porto have won six – and lost five – of their last 13 home European matches. They picked up six points at home in last season's group stage.

• Porto won their second European Cup at Schalke's stadium in Gelsenkirchen, José Mourinho's side beating Monaco 3-0 at the Arena AufSchalke in the 2004 final. Their first final victory came against a German club, a 2-1 defeat of Bayern München in Vienna in 1987.

• Porto are in the UEFA Champions League for the 23rd season – the joint highest total ever alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona.

• Porto have reached the round of 16 in the last two years, and have qualified from the group three times in the last four seasons. In 2017/18 they lost 5-0 on aggregate to eventual runners-up Liverpool in the last 16 having been beaten at home by the same scoreline in the first leg.

• The Portuguese side were also paired with German opponents in last season's group stage, beating RB Leipzig 3-1 at home having lost 3-2 away. They have won six of their seven UEFA Champions League home games against Bundesliga visitors, including the last four, and nine of their 16 European games with German clubs in Porto overall (D3 L4).

• However, Porto have lost four of their last six matches against German clubs, home and away (W1 D1).

Schalke
• After being held at home by Porto, the German club snatched a 1-0 win at Lokomotiv Moskva on matchday two and then picked up four points from their two games with Galatasaray (0-0 away, 2-0 home). Their run of three successive clean sheets is the longest ongoing streak without conceding in the competition, and they share the best defensive record of the 32 teams with Bayern (Group E), having conceded just one goal in their four matches.

• Schalke had won three successive away UEFA Champions League fixtures, including a remarkable 4-3 success at Real Madrid in the 2014/15 round of 16 second leg – although they were eliminated 5-4 on aggregate – before being held at Galatasaray.

• Die Königsblauen have lost only two of their last 14 away European engagements (W8 D4).

• Bundesliga runners-up in 2017/18 – their highest league placing since 2009/10 – this is Schalke's first UEFA Champions League group campaign since 2014/15, their third successive appearance.

• Semi-finalists in 2011, Schalke's last three UEFA Champions League campaigns have all ended in the round of 16.

• The German club did not take part in European competition last season, having reached the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals in 2016/17, where they lost to eventual runners-up Ajax.

• Schalke's last trip to Portugal ended in a 4-2 defeat at Sporting CP in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League group stage – their sole reverse in their last five fixtures, home and away (W3 D1).

Links and trivia
• Porto coach Sérgio Conceição was in charge of Nantes for the second half of 2016/17, Amine Harit making 18 appearances during his reign and scoring once. Current Porto midfielder Sérgio Oliveira was at Nantes for the second half of the campaign.

• Breel Embolo was in the Basel side that drew 1-1 at home and lost 4-0 away against Porto in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League round of 16. Óliver Torres, Héctor Herrera, Yacine Brahimi and Vincent Aboubakar also featured for Porto.

• Herrera was in the Mexico team that beat Germany 1-0 in this summer's FIFA World Cup. Schalke's Sebastian Rudy was an unused substitute in that match, but had started Germany's 4-1 win over Herrera's Mexico in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final.

• International team-mates:
Yacine Brahimi & Nabil Bentaleb (Algeria)

• Has played in Germany:
Riechedly Bazoer (Wolfsburg, 2017–18)

• Have played together:
Daniel Caligiuri & Riechedly Bazoer (Wolfsburg 2017)

Latest news

Porto
• Porto have won their last eight matches in all competitions, scoring 24 goals and conceding only four. They have won 11 of their last 12 matches, the exception a 1-0 defeat at Benfica on 7 October.

• The Dragons were 2-0 winners at home to Belenenses in the last 32 of the Portuguese Cup on Saturday.

• Porto's home record this season is W9 D1 L1 F26 A7, the sole defeat a 3-2 loss against Vitória SC on 25 August. That was their first home reverse in 36 matches and, having led 2-0, it was the first time they had lost at home in the league having been two goals up since 1942/43.

• Porto have scored in their last 16 home matches, since a 5-0 defeat by Liverpool in last season's UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg.

• Porto beat Braga 1-0 on 10 November in a top-of-the-table contest, Francisco Soares heading an 88th-minute winner from Otávio's cross.

• Soares, who also scored at the weekend, has five goals in eight matches. He was left out of Porto's UEFA Champions League squad after missing the start of the season through injury.

• Otávio was also on target against Belenenses and has three goals and two assists in Porto's last four games. Having come on as a substitute in the first three of those matches, he started at the weekend.

• Porto have conceded only one goal in their last seven league games.

• Seventeen players have scored Porto's 46 goals this season.

• A late substitute in Portugal's 0-0 draw in Italy on 17 November that sealed a place in the UEFA Nations League Finals, Danilo started the 1-1 draw against Poland three days later but was sent off after conceding the penalty for the visitors' goal. 

• Moussa Marega played 90 minutes as Mali won 1-0 in Gabon on 17 November to qualify for the 2019 CAF Africa Cup of Nations.

• Vincent Aboubakar suffered a serious knee injury against Tondela on 28 September and is expected to be sidelined for several months.

Schalke 
• Schalke were five games without defeat before a 3-0 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt on 11 November. They recovered to beat Nürnberg 5-2 on Saturday, the first time they had scored five goals in a Bundesliga match since beating Hannover 5-4 in January 2013.

• The German club have won three of their ten away games in all competitions this season (D3 L4) and none of the last four (D3 L1) – though one of those draws preceded a penalty shoot-out win against Köln in the German Cup.

• Schalke have scored 13 goals in 12 Bundesliga games, eight of them in their last two home matches.

• Weston McKennie played in the United States' 3-0 friendly loss to England on 15 November, but missed the 1-0 defeat by Italy five days later due to thigh problems and was sidelined at the weekend.

• Guido Burgstaller did not join up with the Austrian national team in the international break due to a groin injury but played 90 minutes against Nürnberg, scoring Schalke's third goal.

• Breel Embolo (broken metatarsal) and Mark Uth (hamstring) both suffered injuries in Frankfurt and will be out for several weeks.

• Bastian Oczipca (out since July, groin) made his comeback in a 2-1 friendly loss at Zenit on 18 November. He marked his first Bundesliga appearance of the season against Nürnberg with Schalke's final goal.

• Hamza Mendyl, who has been out since 31 October because of an ankle injury, is back in training.

• Cedric Teuchert scored in Germany's 2-1 win against Norway on 12 October that took them through to next summer's UEFA European Under-21 Championship, but then suffered a leg injury and has not featured since.

• Ralf Fährmann was out between 6 October and 11 November with an adductors injury.