PSG look to Le Guen's magic touch

Paris Saint-Germain FC will hope coach Paul Le Guen's excellent record against German sides will put them in good stead as they visit FC Schalke 04 in their first UEFA Cup Group A fixture.

• Le Guen has been involved in eight games against German sides as a player and a coach and to date has lost only one of them, earning six wins and a draw.

• During his time as a midfielder for PSG, he played four UEFA Champions League games against FC Bayern München, winning three and losing one. As coach of Olympique Lyonnais, he led his side to three wins and a draw against Bundesliga opposition, with two of those victories coming on German soil.

• Schalke's Fabian Ernst would certainly prefer to forget the only occasion upon which he and Le Guen previously crossed paths. The midfielder played in both legs of the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League first knockout round tie which saw Lyon beat Ernst's Werder Bremen side 3-0 in Germany and then 7-2 in France.

• This is Schalke and PSG's first meeting in UEFA club competition.

• Schalke's only previous European meeting with a French side saw them draw AS Nancy-Lorraine in the first round of the 2006/07 UEFA Cup. They won 1-0 at home but lost 3-1 in France to bow out of the competition.

• PSG have played six games against German opponents – all of them UEFA Champions League group stage ties against FC Bayern München. They won four of those games, losing the remaining two. Both of those defeats came on German soil.

• Schalke finished third in the Bundesliga last season, despite dismissing coach Mirko Slomka in April, but failed to progress beyond the third qualifying round of this season's UEFA Champions League, with Dutch coach Fred Rutten's side winning 1-0 at home against Club Atlético de Madrid but losing 4-0 in Spain. A 5-2 aggregate win against APOEL FC gave them the consolation of a UEFA Cup group stage place.

• Rutten joined Schalke after earning FC Twente – the club he represented as both a player and coach for almost his whole career – a UEFA Champions League third qualifying round place after success in the Dutch end-of-season play-offs.

• PSG flirted with relegation in the league, but reached the UEFA Cup first round despite losing 1-0 to champions Olympique Lyonnais after extra time in the French Cup final. They edged out Kayserispor in the UEFA Cup first round, winning 2-1 in Turkey and drawing 0-0 in Paris.

• Schalke defender Mladen Krstajić and on-loan PSG striker Mateja Kežman know each other well. The two experienced Serbian internationals were clubmates at FK Partizan for two seasons between 1998 and 2000, winning the then Yugoslavian title for the Belgrade side in 1998/99.

• Twente meet Real Racing Club in Matchday 1's other Group A game. Manchester City FC are the only side in the section not in action on 23 October.