Paris aim to complete Leverkusen task

Paris Saint-Germain are on the verge of a second successive UEFA Champions League quarter-final as they host Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

• As if the cushion of a 4-0 away win in the first leg was not enough, the Ligue 1 title holders have an impressive unbeaten home record in European competition stretching back to 2006 and reached the round of 16 as Group C winners, scoring 16 goals in the process, while Leverkusen were second in Group A behind Manchester United FC.

Match background
• Leverkusen have not reached the quarter-finals since 2001/02, the season they finished runners-up. Their last foray into the knockout rounds, in 2011/12, ended with a heavy defeat against FC Barcelona – 3-1 at home and 7-1 in Spain.

• Paris were quarter-finalists last term for the first time since 1994/95 and will be optimistic of reaching the last eight again given their 27-game unbeaten home record. The last visiting team to prevail in Paris in UEFA competition were Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC, 4-2 winners in the UEFA Cup group stage in November 2006.

• Paris have won all 14 UEFA competition ties when they have recorded a first-leg away victory, most recently against Valencia CF in last season's round of 16 when a 2-1 triumph in Spain preceded a 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes.

• Leverkusen have lost all nine ties in which they suffered a home first-leg defeat, including against SL Benfica in last season's UEFA Europa League round of 32 (0-1 home, 1-2 away). Indeed, only once in those nine ties did they record a second-leg victory.

• In the group stage, Leverkusen lost 4-2 at Manchester United FC, drew 0-0 at FC Shakhtar Donetsk and won 1-0 at Real Sociedad de Fútbol – their first UEFA Champions League victory outside Germany in 11 years and 16 matches, qualifying included.

• It is five years ago since a Paris side including Zoumana Camara won their only previous two-legged tie against Bundesliga opposition, 5-1 on aggregate against VfL Wolfsburg in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32. Guillaume Hoarau (2) earned them a 2-0 home win in the first leg on 18 February 2009 before Péguy Luyindula (2) and Jérôme Rothen secured a 3-1 away victory. Claude Makelele, now the Parisians' assistant coach, was an unused substitute in the home leg.

• Paris are unbeaten at home against German clubs: W4 D1 L0.

• Gonzalo Castro, Simon Rolfes and substitute Stefan Kiessling are the only survivors of Leverkusen's last trip to France for a 2-1 first-leg loss at RC Lens in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup round of 16. Leverkusen went on to win that tie 4-2 on aggregate and have a 100% record over two legs against French sides having also overcome FC Nantes (5-1 agg) in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup quarter-finals and Toulouse FC (2-1 agg) in the 1987/88 UEFA Cup second round.

• Ulf Kirsten scored the only goal when Leverkusen last won at Ligue 1 opposition, beating Olympique Lyonnais 1-0 in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League group stage. It remains their only victory in France, where their record reads W1 D2 L2.

Team ties
• Coaches Sami Hyypiä and Laurent Blanc met on the field of play when the former's Finland side lost 1-0 to France in a June 1998 friendly in Helsinki. Hyypiä came out on top four years later, though, when his Liverpool FC side won 1-0 at Blanc's Manchester United in the only Premier League fixture they contested.

• Hyypiä was in the Liverpool team beaten 3-2 on aggregate by Olympique de Marseille in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup fourth round. He had mixed fortunes against OM in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League with Liverpool, losing 1-0 at home but winning 4-0 away.

• Blanc suffered a 2001/02 UEFA Champions League semi-final defeat at the hands of Leverkusen, his Manchester United side losing on away goals after following up a 2-2 home draw with a 1-1 draw at the BayArena. The following season, Blanc's United faced Leverkusen again in the first group stage, winning 2-1 away and 2-0 at home.

• As France coach, Blanc oversaw a 2-1 friendly success over Germany in February 2012 in Bremen, where Jérémy Ménez and Lars Bender both appeared as substitutes. As a player he scored the only goal in a Germany-France friendly in Stuttgart in June 1996.

• Blanc won his only previous UEFA Champions League meetings with Bundesliga opposition as a coach, overseeing home and away wins for FC Girondins de Bordeaux over FC Bayern München in the 2009/10 group stage.

• Giulio Donati and Marco Verratti were colleagues in the Italy squad that reached the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final in Israel.

• Emir Spahić spent two seasons in Ligue 1 with Montpellier Hérault SC from 2009-11. He scored a last-minute equaliser in a 1-1 home draw with Paris in the opening game of 2010/11.

• Alex appeared as a substitute for Chelsea FC against Leverkusen in the 2011/12 group stage, coming off the bench in a 2-0 home win and again in a 2-1 away defeat.

• Thiago Motta helped Barcelona to a 2-1 victory at Leverkusen in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League second group stage, as well as a 2-0 success back in Spain. Motta lined up against substitute Bender when his Italy side drew 1-1 with Germany in a Milan friendly in November.

• Bender also appeared as a substitute when Germany beat Gregory van der Wiel's Netherlands 2-1 in the group stage at UEFA EURO 2012, and once more in a 2-1 friendly win over Blaise Matuidi's France in Paris in February 2013.

• Edinson Cavani scored against substitute Kiessling's Germany in Uruguay's 3-2 defeat in the play-off for third place at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He also found the net against Eren Derdiyok's Switzerland in Uruguay's 3-1 friendly win in the lead-up to those finals.