Arsenal face maiden Madrid visit

The first-ever meeting in UEFA club competition between Arsenal FC and Real Madrid CF was decided by a superb solo goal from Thierry Henry, taking the London side a step nearer a place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League for only the third time.

First home defeat
• Henry's strike, early in the second half, left Madrid nursing a first home defeat by a team from England. Now they have to inflict similar damage on their opponents in the return, otherwise another quest to win Europe's most prestigious club crown will elude them for a fourth successive campaign.

Final game?
• For their part Arsenal will be especially determined to prevail on aggregate because defeat would not only add another disappointing statistic to their recent European record but would signal the final European tie at the Highbury stadium which has been their home for 93 years. From next season Arsène Wenger's team will be playing at nearby Ashburton Grove.

• Highbury's first match in the European Champion Clubs' Cup was Arsenal's 4-0 first round second-leg defeat of Norwegian club Strømsgodset IF on 29 September 1971 with Ray Kennedy scoring the opening goal on six minutes. Arsenal had won 3-1 in the first leg, completing a 7-1 aggregate success.

Five wins
• Arsenal qualified for this stage as comfortable winners of Group B and came close to achieving what only four clubs had managed before: a clean sweep of their six games. Only Ajax's youngsters stood firm against them – a 0-0 draw on Matchday 6. Just two goals have been conceded in their seven games so far while Henry's goal in the Santiago Bernabéu two weeks ago took his tally for the campaign to four.

Good memories
• Arsenal have good memories of their last tussle with Spanish opponents. They overcame RC Celta de Vigo home and away in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League first knockout round with Henry scoring both goals in a 2-0 home win that followed a 3-2 victory in Spain.

• In six home games against Spanish opponents in the UEFA Champions League their record is not wholly convincing with two defeats and one draw though one of the defeats came while they were staging home ties at Wembley.

Unbeaten in seven
• Since losing at home to Chelsea FC in the 2003/04 quarter-final second leg, the Gunners have played seven games at Highbury in the competition, winning five and drawing two.

Final disappointment
• Arsenal twice lost in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final to Spanish sides. Valencia CF were victors in the 1979/80 edition and Real Zaragoza triumphed in the 1994/95 showpiece.

Third defeat
• Their defeat two weeks ago was Madrid’s third in this season's competition, having lost twice in finishing second in Group F. But they will take confidence from their traditional superiority over English sides in the home-and-away format and the fact that their best work has often come on opposition territory.

• Their most recent excursion is an exception – a 4-3 defeat by Manchester United FC in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. Before that they strung together two successive wins in England in the UEFA Champions League. Of eight games on English soil in UEFA club competition they have won three and drawn one.

• Strangely, the club bidding for a tenth European Champion Clubs' Cup triumph have fared less well in one-off games against English foes, going down to Liverpool FC in the 1980/81 European Cup final and to Chelsea FC both in the 1970/71 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final, though that game went to a replay, and the 1998 UEFA Super Cup.

Mixed group form
• In the group stage, Madrid were humbled in their opening game as Olympique Lyonnais inflicted a 3-0 defeat but recovered to score wins in their next three outings. They conceded eight goals in six games.

• That defeat in France continued a pattern of poor form away from home in the competition. In their last seven games on the road they have lost four and drawn one.

No joy last season
• Both teams will be eager to erase the memory of defeat at this stage in last season's competition. A 3-1 defeat in Germany left Arsenal with too much to do at home to FC Bayern München and they needed more than Henry's lone strike. Madrid won their home leg against Juventus through Iván Helguera's header but succumbed 2-0 away after extra time.

Knockout format
• Clubs play two matches against each other on a home and away basis, with the team scoring the greater aggregate of goals qualifying for the next round. In the event of both teams scoring the same number of goals, the team which scores more goals away qualifies. If this proves inconclusive, extra time of two periods of 15 minutes is played after the second match. If during extra time both teams score the same number of goals, the away goals count double (ie. the visiting team advances). If no goals are scored during extra time, the winner is decided by penalty kicks.