Galatasaray v Real Madrid facts

Having picked up only one point each from their first two Group A games, Galatasaray and Real Madrid can ill afford to slip further off the pace when they meet in Istanbul on Matchday 3.

• Both sides have drawn with Club Brugge and lost to section leaders Paris Saint-Germain, who have a four-point advantage in the standings after two rounds of fixtures.

• Galatasaray have lost their last four fixtures against Spanish clubs, while Madrid have won four of their last five matches with Turkish opposition – including two thumping wins against Gala in the group stage of their victorious 2013/14 UEFA Champions League campaign.

Previous meetings
• Six years ago Madrid recorded their first victory in Istanbul, on their fourth visit and in their third away game at Galatasaray – and it proved one to remember, goals from Karim Benzema (2) and Isco added to by a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick in a 6-1 Matchday 1 win for Carlo Ancelotti's side. Fernando Muslera and Selçuk İnan both featured for a Galatasaray side coached then, as now, by Fatih Terim; seven days after the match, Terim was replaced by Roberto Mancini.

• Isco was also on target at the Santiago Bernabéu on Matchday 5, Gareth Bale opening the scoring in a 4-1 victory for the home side. Despite those two heavy defeats, however, Gala still managed to finish second in the section on seven points – nine behind Madrid, who went on to claim their tenth European title at the end of the season with Galatasaray losing to Chelsea in the round of 16.

• The teams had also met in the 2012/13 quarter-finals, Benzema scoring in a 3-0 win for Madrid in the home first leg; the Spanish side held on to progress despite a 3-2 second-leg defeat in Istanbul, but lost to Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals.

• The clubs' other three encounters all took place in 2000/01, starting with Galatasaray's 2-1 triumph in the UEFA Super Cup in Monaco. Although Raúl González's 79th-minute penalty cancelled out a Mário Jardel (41) spot kick, Jardel's second goal on 102 minutes secured Galatasaray a second European honour three months after their UEFA Cup triumph – a first for a Turkish team.

• A Galatasaray side coached by Mircea Lucescu made life awkward for Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals later that season. Once again the Turkish team won 3-2 in Istanbul, but Vicente del Bosque's Madrid shrugged off that loss with a 3-0 win back in the Spanish capital to reach a semi-final they would lose against Bayern München.

Form guide
Galatasaray
• Held 0-0 at Club Brugge on Matchday 1 before a 1-0 home defeat against Paris last time out, Galatasaray are without a win in their last nine European fixtures (D3 L6).

• Galatasaray kicked off their 2018/19 UEFA Champions League group campaign with a 3-0 home success against Lokomotiv Moskva, but picked up only one more point in their next five fixtures to finish third behind Porto and Schalke. They then lost to Benfica in the UEFA Europa League round of 32 (1-2 h, 0-0 a).

• The defeat of Lokomotiv is Galatasaray's only win in their last 17 European fixtures (D6 L10).

• The win against Loko ended a run of three successive home 1-1 draws in Europe for Galatasaray, who have won only two of their last 14 continental fixtures in Istanbul, drawing six.

• Galatasaray's most recent fixtures with Spanish opponents came in the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League group stage, when they lost 2-0 both home and away to Real Madrid's local rivals Atlético, Antoine Griezmann scoring all four goals for a side who would go on to lose the final on penalties to their neighbours.

• The 3-2 defeat of Real Madrid in the 2012/13 quarter-final second leg is Galatasaray's sole success in their last 17 matches against Spanish sides (D4 L12) stretching back to that 2001 success against the Merengues. At home, Cimbom won five of their first seven games against Spanish visitors, but those two defeats of Madrid are their only victories in the last nine (D1 L6).

• Turkish champions in 2018/19 for a record 22nd time, Galatasaray qualified for a 16th appearance in the UEFA Champions League group stage – one more than all other Turkish teams combined.

• Galatasaray are the only team from Turkey to have reached a European Cup semi-final, in 1989.

Real Madrid
• Madrid were beaten 3-0 at Paris Saint-Germain on Matchday 1 and had to come from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Club Brugge last time out.

• The Spanish giants have lost three of their last five UEFA Champions League matches – conceding three or more goals in each of those defeats, and 13 in that five-game sequence.

• Last season Madrid finished first in their section ahead of Roma, Viktoria Plzeň and CSKA Moskva, picking up 12 points from their six matches but losing both games against CSKA. A team then coached by Santiago Solari won 2-1 at Ajax in the round of 16 first leg, but bowed out 5-3 on aggregate after a 4-1 home defeat.

• Last season was the first since 2009/10 in which Madrid had failed to reach the semi-finals or better. This is the 13-time champions' 50th European Cup campaign, more than any other side.

• Madrid won three of their four European away matches last season and have triumphed in 14 of their last 23, losing just five.

• Madrid's three-game run without a European victory is their longest sequence without a success since two draws and a defeat in October-November 2012. They last failed to win four successive matches during a five-game winless run between November 2005 and September 2006.

• Madrid's only other experience of Turkish opponents in UEFA competition came in the 1958/59 European Champion Clubs' Cup, when they were 3-1 aggregate winners against Galatasaray's Istanbul rivals Beşiktaş in the first round (2-0 h, 1-1 a). They went on to win the trophy for the fourth successive year.

• Third in Spain in 2018/19, this is Madrid's 24th UEFA Champions League campaign – a joint record along with Barcelona. They have qualified for the knockout rounds in all of their 23 seasons, also a competition best.

Links and trivia
• Galatasaray coach Terim faced Spain as Turkey head coach three times. The first two games came in qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Turkey losing 1-0 at the Bernabéu on 28 March 2009 and 2-1 at home four days later. Terim's Turkey were also beaten 3-0 by Spain in the UEFA EURO 2016 group stage.

• Have played in Spain:
Mariano Ferreira (Sevilla 2015–17)
Steven Nzonzi (Sevilla 2015–18)
Ryan Babel (Deportivo 2016)
Ryan Donk (Real Betis 2016/17 (loan))
Sofiane Feghouli (Valencia 2010–16, Almería 2011 (loan))
Radamel Falcao (Atlético Madrid 2011–13)
Emre Mor (Celta Vigo 2017–19)

• Mariano and Nzonzi were both part of Sevilla's victorious UEFA Europa League team in 2015/16, and both played in the 3-2 defeat by Real Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup in August 2016.

• Falcao scored in Atlético's UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup final victories in 2012, hitting two goals in the former and a hat-trick in the latter, and was also in the team that beat Madrid in the 2012/13 Copa del Rey final at the Bernabéu.

• Florin Andone emigrated to Spain aged 12, spending time in the youth teams at Vinaròs (2005–08), Castellón (2008–11, where he made his senior debut), and Villarreal (2011–12). He was in Villarreal's C team from 2011 onwards, and after a 2013/14 loan spell at Atlético Baleares, went on to have spells at Córdoba (2014–16) and Deportivo (2016–18).

• Have played together:
Radamel Falcao & James Rodríguez (Porto 2010/11; Monaco 2013/14)
Radamel Falcao & Thibaut Courtois (Atlético Madrid 2011–13; Chelsea 2015/16)
Radamel Falcao & Eden Hazard (Chelsea 2015/16)
Florin Andone & Federico Valverde (Deportivo 2017/18)
Sofiane Feghouli & Isco (Valencia, 2010/11)

• International team-mates:
Steven Nzonzi & Raphaël Varane, Alphonse Areola, Ferland Mendy (France)
Radamel Falcao & James Rodríguez (Colombia)
Fernando Muslera & Federico Valverde (Uruguay)

Latest News

Galatasaray
• Galatasaray ended a run of three matches without a goal in all competitions with a 3-2 home win against Sivasspor on Friday, Florin Andone scoring twice – his first goals for the club.

• That made it 40 home league games unbeaten for Galatasaray (W33 D7), whose last defeat came against Kasımpaşa on 6 May 2017.

• Galatasaray's tally of three goals at the weekend was one more than they had managed in their six previous matches combined in all competitions. It was also the first time they had scored more than once at home this season, in their fifth match.

• Cimbom have drawn four of their last six matches in all competitions, the exceptions the win against Sivasspor and the Matchday 2 loss to Paris.

• Gala kicked off the new season with a 1-0 win against Akhisarspor in the Turkish Super Cup on 7 August, winning the trophy for a record 16th time.

• Yuto Nagatomo scored in Japan's 6-0 defeat of Mongolia in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying on 10 October.

• Fernando Muslera kept a clean sheet in Uruguay's 1-0 friendly win against Peru on 11 October, before returning home as his wife gave birth to a daughter, Tiziana.

• Galatasaray defeated İstanbulspor 3-2 in a friendly during the international break thanks to goals from Jimmy Durmaz, Taylan Antalyalı and Emre Mor.

• Christian Luyindama withdrew from DR Congo's squad for the friendlies against Algeria and Ivory Coast to return to Istanbul for treatment on the thigh injury picked up against Paris on Matchday 2; he played 75 minutes on Friday.

• Radamel Falcao suffered an Achilles injury against Paris and has not played since.

• Mario Lemina, who has been out since 28 September with a thigh injury, is still training individually.

• Emre Akbaba has been left out of the UEFA Champions League squad after suffering a broken leg against Rizespor on 11 May; he is expected to be sidelined until next year, although he has returned to light training.

Real Madrid
• Toni Kroos's next game in the UEFA Champions League, group stage to final, will be his 100th; he will be the 39th player to reach that mark and the fifth German after Oliver Kahn, Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer.

• Dani Carvajal made his 50th appearance in the competition on Matchday 2.

• Madrid suffered their first Liga defeat of the season at Mallorca on Saturday, going down 1-0 to lose the Spanish top flight's last unbeaten record; they had won five and drawn three of their first eight games. The defeat enabled Barcelona to leapfrog them to the top of the Liga table.

• That was only Madrid's second defeat in 2019/20 after the 3-0 loss at Paris on Matchday 1.

• Zinédine Zidane's team had kept three successive clean sheets in the league before the 4-2 victory at home to Granada on 5 October in which Eden Hazard scored his first goal for his new club and James Rodríguez got his first Madrid goals since scoring twice on 6 May 2017, a 4-0 win also against Granada.

• Karim Benzema has six goals in eight Liga appearances this season and is the Spanish top flight's joint top scorer.

• Sergio Ramos won his 167th cap for Spain in a 1-1 UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying draw with Norway on 12 October, level with former Madrid team-mate Iker Casillas as his country's record appearance maker.

• Ramos was suspended for the subsequent 1-1 draw against Sweden with which Spain booked their place at next summer's finals, a match in which Dani Carvajal played.

• Hazard and Thibaut Courtois helped Belgium book their place as EURO 2020 with a 9-0 victory against San Marino on 10 October.

• Luka Modrić was on target in Croatia's 3-0 qualifying win over Hungary on 10 October and also played in a 1-1 draw in Wales three days later, a match in which Gareth Bale equalised for the home side.

• Casemiro scored in Brazil's 1-1 friendly draw with Nigeria on 13 October.

• Lucas Vázquez (thigh) and Nacho Fernández (knee) have been out since Matchday 2.

• Kroos had to be replaced due to an adductor problem against Granada on 5 October and has not played since.

• Modrić, who was out between 9 and 28 September with an adductor injury, picked up a hamstring problem in Croatia's draw with Wales and missed the defeat at Mallorca.

• Ferland Mendy picked up an adductor injury in training on 24 September and has not played since, although he was an unused substitute at Mallorca

• Marco Asensio is a long-term absentee having ruptured knee ligaments in a pre-season friendly against Arsenal on 24 July.

FootballPeople weeks
The FootballPeople weeks take place from 10 to 24 October 2019 and are organised by UEFA's social responsibility partner Fare. The weeks are a global campaign aimed at tackling discrimination and celebrating diversity in football. The UEFA Champions League is offering its full support to the FootballPeople weeks; teams will line up for a mixed photo with the referees, while an #EqualGame hashtag will also be on display. Videos will be played on giant screens at stadiums across Europe, and child mascots will be wearing #FootballPeople t-shirts. UEFA's collaboration with the Fare network's FootballPeople weeks has been running since 2001. The aim of this initiative fits in perfectly with the goals of #EqualGame, which is looking to promote inclusion, diversity and accessibility.