Schalke welcome Basel with last 16 on line

FC Schalke 04 and FC Basel 1893 meet to decide who takes the second qualifying place in Group E alongside Chelsea FC.

• Basel's second victory against the London side has give them a one-point advantage over their opponents, so a draw will be enough for them whereas Schalke have to win. The German side triumphed 1-0 in Switzerland on matchday two, however, courtesy of a superb half-volley from Julian Draxler. 

• Should Chelsea lose at home to FC Steaua Bucureşti, the winners in Gelsenkirchen will top the group; a draw would put Basel in first place. Also, a Chelsea draw would leave the English side top as long as Basel do not win.

• Schalke started with a 3-0 home success against FC Steaua Bucureşti although they lost by the same score to Chelsea in their other Gelsenkirchen fixture.

• Basel won 2-1 at Chelsea on matchday one but were held to a 1-1 draw at Steaua in their other away game.

Previous meetings 
• Before this season the sides had met only once, a 1-1 UEFA Cup group stage draw on 21 October 2004. Basel subsitute Matías Delgado scored an 82nd-minute free-kick to earn a point for the visitors, who also included the Degen brothers. Levan Kobiashvili had put the home team ahead (8).

• The teams in Gelsenkirchen were:
Schalke: Rost, Kobiashvili, Pander, Oude-Kamphuis, Krstajić, Bordon, Hamit Altıntop (Varela 68), Poulsen, Asamoah, Lincoln (Aílton 87), Sand (Hanke 87).
Basel: Zuberbühler, P Degen, Smiljanić, Zwyssig, D Degen, Huggel, Chipperfield (Sterjovski 65), Giménez (Carignano 84), Kléber, Rossi (Delgado 65), Petrić.

• That was the only previous time Schalke, group winners in their past two UEFA Champions League participations, have taken on Swiss opposition.

• The last time Basel travelled to face German opposition they suffered a 7-0 reverse against FC Bayern München in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg. It was their biggest defeat in UEFA competition, belying a 1-0 home win.

• That first-leg victory was only Basel's third in 14 attempts against Bundesliga sides. Their record is W3 D2 L9 (W1 D2 L4 away). Their only success on their travels came in a 1999 Intertoto Cup third round tie which they won 1-0 at Hamburger SV, losing the home leg 3-2.

Match background
• In their fifth group stage campaign, Schalke are aiming to reach the knockout rounds for the fourth time in seven seasons.

• Last season at home, Schalke drew 2-2 with Arsenal FC and Montpellier Hérault SC and beat Olympiacos FC 1-0. In the round of 16 they drew 1-1 at Galatasaray AŞ but then lost 3-2 at home.

• The Chelsea defeat was only Schalke's third in their last 14 UEFA Champions League home fixtures, 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.

• Last season Basel narrowly failed to become the first Swiss side to make it to the final of a major UEFA club tournament, losing 5-2 on aggregate to Chelsea in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals.

• Two years ago, their last UEFA Champions League campaign, Basel were unbeaten away in the group, drawing at Manchester United FC and SL Benfica and winning at FC Oţelul Galaţi. It meant they advanced to the knockout rounds for the first time in the current format.

Team ties
• Murat Yakin's VfB Stuttgart beat Jens Keller's VfL Wolfsburg 2-1 in the Bundesliga on 8 March 1998. Keller played the entire game for Wolfsburg and picked up a yellow card, while Yakin was brought on for Stuttgart after 56 minutes.

• When Yakin was at Stuttgart between 1997 and 1998, Timo Hildebrand was in the youth side; Yakin's only match against Schalke ended 0-0 on 1 November 1997. He also made nine Bundesliga appearances for 1. FC Kaiserslautern between 2000 and 2001.

• Keller faced Basel's assistant manager Marco Walker when Wolfsburg played TSV 1860 München in October 1997 and March 1998, Wolfsburg winning 2-1 and 1-0.

• Marco Streller and Hildebrand were Stuttgart team-mates between 2004 and 2007, winning the Bundesliga in 2006/07. Streller went on loan to 1. FC Köln in 2006: in a total of seven games against Schalke his record is W3 D2 L2.

• Giovanni Sio played for VfL Wolfsburg and FC Augsburg between January 2012 and August 2013.

• David Degen played for VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2006/07 while brother Philipp was at Borussia Dortmund between 2005 and 2008 and Stuttgart in 2010/11.

• Substitute Streller scored in Switzerland's 3-1 friendly defeat to Germany on 7 February 2007. David Degen also came on in the second half while Philipp Degen played the full 90 minutes. Hildebrand was on the bench for Germany.

• Kwang-Ryong Pak, a 56th-minute substitute, was sent off in North Korea's 1-0 defeat to Atsuto Uchida's Japan in Saitama in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 2 September 2011.

• Christian Fuchs missed a penalty in Austria's 1-0 friendly defeat against Valentin Stocker's Switzerland in Klagenfurt on 11 August 2010.

• Streller scored from the spot in Switzerland's 2-1 friendly defeat by an Austria side including Fuchs in Innsbruck on 11 October 2006.