Schalke v Salzburg background

Schalke will look to maintain their impressive unbeaten run in UEFA Europa League group stage games as they welcome Salzburg in Group I.

Previous meetings
• The teams are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• In their only previous encounters with Austrian opponents, Schalke won 2-0 away and drew 0-0 at home against Kärnten (now Pasching) in a 2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup final.

• Salzburg's six matches against German sides have ended W1 D2 L3 (D1 L2 in Germany), that lone victory coming at home to Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

Form guide
• Schalke opened their Group I campaign with a 1-0 triumph in Nice. They have yet to lose in 13 UEFA Europa League group stage fixtures (W9 D4),

• Salzburg were undefeated in 14 UEFA Europa League group stage appearances (W13 D1) until they lost 1-0 at home to Krasnodar on matchday one, but they are unbeaten in three European away games this season (W2 D1).

• Schalke have made it through three of their past four UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.

• Salzburg have successfully negotiated four of their previous five UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns.

Links and trivia
• The journey from Salzburg to Gelsenkirchen is around 600km.

• Klaas-Jan Huntelaar's next goal will be his 50th in UEFA club competition. The Schalke forward has not scored in his last five European outings.

• Schalke's Ukraine winger Yevhen Konoplyanka turns 27 the day of the Salzburg match.

• Schalke boast Austrian talent in the form of midfielder Alessandro Schöpf.

• Jonatan Soriano is Salzburg's all-time top scorer in UEFA competitions with 24 goals.

• Former team-mates:
Leon Goretzka (Schalke) & Marc Rzatkowski (Salzburg) – Bochum, 2012–13
Dennis Aogo and Sascha Riether (Schalke) & Alexander Walke (Salzburg) – Freiburg, 2005–07

The coaches
• New Schalke coach Markus Weinzierl made it to last season's UEFA Europa League round of 32 with Augsburg, whom he had led since 2012. His playing career peaked when he spent a season with the first-team squad at Bayern München in 1998/99, though he never played a senior game.

• A midfielder – and later youth coach – at Barcelona, Salzburg's Spanish coach Óscar García has managed abroad with Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Brighton & Hove Albion and Watford. He guided Salzburg to the Austrian title in his first campaign in charge in 2015/16.