Schalke and City eye last 32

FC Schalke 04 will look to put an early end to their Group A qualification campaign and avenge an old defeat as they meet Manchester City FC in their third UEFA Cup group-stage fixture.

• Schalke have four points after beating Paris Saint-Germain FC 3-1 in their opening fixture before drawing 1-1 at Real Racing Club. City kicked off on Matchday 2 with a 3-2 win at home against FC Twente, and are second in the section with three points.

• A win for Schalke will guarantee them a place in the last 32. No side has ever been eliminated from the UEFA Cup group stage with seven points, though it is theoretically possible for four sides to finish level with seven points, with one team being eliminated on goal difference.

• A win for City will most likely send them through too. Only once in the history of the UEFA Cup group stage has a total of six points not been enough to qualify, with a Rangers FC side featuring Schalke striker Peter Løvenkrands missing out in the 2004/05 edition.

• City and Schalke have met before, the English side beating their German opponents 5-2 on aggregate in the semi-final of the 1969/70 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Joe Mercer's side then went on to beat Poland's Górnik Zabrze in the final to win what remains the club's only major European trophy.

• Schalke won the first leg 1-0 in Gelsenkirchen thanks to a 76th-minute Reinhard Libuda strike, meaning they have won their sole home game against City.

• However, they were overwhelmed at Maine Road, as the English side won 5-1 with Mike Doyle (8), Neil Young (22, 28), Francis Lee (50) and Colin Bell (81) all scoring against Rudi Gutendorf's side, for whome Libuda's late goal was scant consolation.

• The teams for the first leg in Germany on 1 April 1970 were:
Schalke: Norbert Nigbur, Waldemar Slomiany, Hans-Jürgen Becher (Alban Wüst, 70), Hermann Erlhoff, Klaus Fichtel, Heinz van Haaren, Reinhard Libuda, Gerd Neuser, Manfred Pohlschmidt, Hans-Jürgen Wittkamp (Klaus Scheer, 46), Hans Pirkner.
City: Joe Corrigan, Tony Book, Glyn Pardoe, Mike Doyle, Derek Jeffries, Alan Oakes, Tommy Booth, Colin Bell, Francis Lee, Neil Young, Mike Summerbee.

• The only other German side City have faced in European competition is VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach, to whom they lost to 4-2 on aggregate in the 1978/79 UEFA Cup quarter finals having followed a 1-1 home draw with a 3-1 defeat in German against the eventual winners. Their complete record in games against Bundesliga sides reads W1 D1 L2, with both of those defeats coming in Germany.

• Schalke have played eight UEFA club competition games against English teams and met Chelsea FC in the group stage of last season's UEFA Champions League, losing 2-0 in London and drawing 0-0 at home. Their record in all of those matches reads W3 D2 L3. They have won three and drawn one of their home games against English opponents.

• Schalke coach Fred Rutten has never encountered English opponents.

• City manager Mark Hughes, meanwhile has yet to win against German opposition as a coach, with his Blackburn Rovers FC side drawing one 2006/07 UEFA Cup game against Bayer 04 Leverkusen and losing the other. He played three matches against German sides with FC Barcelona and Chelsea FC, winning all of them.

• Hughes also played in Germany, spending the 1987/88 season on loan at FC Bayern München from FC Barcelona and scoring six goals in 18 league games for the Munich club, who finished third in the table.

• Three City players have experience of German football. Vincent Kompany played at Hamburger SV from 2006 to 2008, Berti Glauber joined from 1. FC Nürnberg in the summer and the injured Martin Petrov was at VfL Wolfsburg from 2001 to 2005.

• In 2003/04 Petrov and Schalke's Albert Streit were team-mates at Wolfsburg.

• PSG play Racing in Thursday's other Group A tie. Twente are the only side in the section not in action on Matchday 3.