Schalke strive for home repeat as Montpellier visit

FC Schalke 04 and Montpellier Hérault SC are in contrasting moods as they meet for the first time in the second round of matches in UEFA Champions League Group B.

• The teams were on different ends of 2-1 scorelines on matchday one, Schalke triumphing at Olympiacos FC while Montpellier went down at home to Arsenal FC.

Match background
• Schalke have won all three of their home games against French opponents but lost both away. They beat AS Nancy-Lorraine 1-0 in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup first round – before a 3-1 defeat in the return in France – and Paris Saint-Germain FC 3-1 in the group stage of the 2008/09 competition.

• In their only UEFA Champions League meeting with a Ligue 1 club, Schalke defeated Olympique Lyonnais 3-0 in the group stage in Gelsenkirchen on 24 November 2010, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scoring twice after Jefferson Farfán put the hosts ahead. They had lost the sides' meeting in Lyon 1-0, Michel Bastos scoring the only goal of the game.

• Montpellier, French champions for the first time in 2011/12, have not met German opponents since 1999 and all six previous fixtures came in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. In 1997 they lost 2-1 in their semi-final first leg at 1. FC Köln, winning 1-0 at home in the return to go through on away goals. In their final they went down 4-2 to Lyon.

• Two years later Montpellier met German sides in both the semi-finals and finals of the UEFA Intertoto Cup. They overcame MSV Duisburg in the last four, drawing 1-1 away and winning 3-0 at home. In the final, they swapped 1-1 draws with Hamburger SV, eventually winning 3-0 on penalties in the second leg in Hamburg. They went on to reach the UEFA Cup second round, overcoming FK Crvena zvezda 3-2 on aggregate in the first round before going down 5-1 to RC Deportivo La Coruña over two legs.

• Schalke are making their fifth UEFA Champions League appearance and when they were last involved, in the aforementioned 2010/11 campaign, they recovered from their 1-0 defeat at Lyon on matchday one to win seven of their next nine fixtures with the other two drawn.

• They finished first in their group before overcoming Valencia CF and holders FC Internazionale Milano in the knockout rounds. They came unstuck against Manchester United FC in the semi-finals, losing 2-0 at home and 4-1 away.

Team ties
• Benedikt Höwedes scored Germany's 90th-minute winner in the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship play-off against a France team which included Anthony Mounier. Höwedes' goal gave Germany a 1-0 win in the second leg in Metz on 15 October 2008 and a 2-1 aggregate victory, with both players having also featured in the 1-1 first-leg draw. Germany went on to lift the trophy at the finals in Sweden.

• On 7 September 2007, Tranquillo Barnetta scored Switzerland's opening goal in a 2-1 friendly victory over Chile in Vienna. Marco Estrada came on for the South American side in the 66th minute.

• Estrada got his revenge at the 2010 FIFA World Cup when Chile defeated Switzerland 1-0 in the group stage. Estrada was on the bench and Barnetta came on in the 42nd minute.

• Barnetta faced Daniel Congré in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage when his Bayer 04 Leverkusen team beat Toulouse FC 1-0 in Germany.

• In the 2006/07 UEFA Cup round of 16, Barnetta's Leverkusen took on RC Lens, who included Hilton in their team. The French side won their home leg 2-1 but lost 3-0 in Leverkusen.

• John Utaka and Chinedu Obasi are team-mates in the Nigerian national side but have yet to play together.