Schalke search for home comfort

FC Schalke 04 will be looking to put the disappointment of their elimination from the UEFA Champions League behind them when they begin their UEFA Cup campaign against RCD Espanyol in Gelsenkirchen. The Spanish side might consider themselves unlucky to face such strong opposition in the Round of 32 after being edged out of first place in Group B on goal difference.

• Schalke themselves had designs on claiming a place in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, after recovering from a sluggish start to Group E. Defeat at PSV Eindhoven and draws against AC Milan and Fenerbahçe SK left them with just two points from their opening three games but they lifted themselves off the foot of the section with a 2-0 win in the rematch against the Turkish team. Levan Kobiashvili then scored a hat-trick in a comfortable win against PSV but a 3-2 defeat at Milan consigned Schalke to third.

• Espanyol reached the UEFA Cup knockout stages unbeaten, after two wins and two draws from their group games. Raúl Tamudo's second-half strike ensured they opened up with a narrow victory at FC Lokomotiv Moskva, before successive 1-1 draws against US Città di Palermo and Brøndby IF. The Barcelona outfit needed to win by a bigger margin than Palermo on Matchday 5 to claim top spot but once again they could only must a solitary goal against Maccabi Petach-Tikva FC.

• Schalke and Espanyol have never before met in UEFA competition, and both have mixed track records against teams from their opponents' countries. The German side have met Spanish opposition on eight previous occasions, and their record currently stands at three wins, three losses and two draws.

• The first occasion came in the quarter-finals of the 1958/59 European Champions Clubs' Cup when they were comprehensively defeated by Club Atlético de Madrid. Almost 38 years to the day, they recorded a UEFA Cup quarter-final victory against Valencia CF and after overcoming another Spanish team, CD Tenerife, in the semi-finals they went on to lift the trophy.

• In 2001 they lost 1-0 at home to Tenerife's Balearic neighbours RCD Mallorca in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, with Samuel Eto'o scoring the only goal of the game. Memories of that defeat were soon vanquished, however, with a comprehensive 4-0 reverse at the Son Moix.

• Espanyol also have mixed memories of German opposition, despite winning four of their six games to date. The importance of aggregate early round UEFA Cup wins against TSV Eintracht Braunschweig and VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach paled by comparison to the final of the 1986/87 competition against Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

• The Barcelona outfit looked on course for their first European trophy after winning the first leg 3-0, but second-half goals from Milton Tita, Falko Götz and Bum-Kun Cha took the game into extra time in the return in Germany. From there, Leverkusen went on to win on penalties.