Thanks to some super saves from Yann Sommer, Mönchengladbach go into the home leg of the UEFA Europa League’s all-German round of 16 tie level with Schalke at 1-1.
• Misses next game if booked
Mönchengladbach: Mahmoud Dahoud, Tony Jantschke
Schalke: Abdul Baba Rahman, Johannes Geis, Leon Goretzka, Thilo Kehrer, Matija Nastasić
Previous meetings
• The clubs met for the first time in UEFA competition last week, days after their 100th domestic encounter; Gladbach have had the better of those fixtures: W40 D28 L32.
• Gladbach have now taken on German opponents in 15 UEFA games with the record W9 D3 L3, winning all seven of their home matches.
• Schalke lost their only all-German UEFA tie to Magdeburg (then representing East Germany) in the second round of the 1977/78 UEFA Cup, going down 4-2 away and 3-1 at home.
• This will be the 50th game between two German teams in UEFA club competition. The most notable recent all-Bundesliga tie was the 2013 UEFA Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern München.
Form guide
• Gladbach are without a win in their last four European home matches (D2 L2), averaging a goal a game during that run.
• Schalke have lost only one of their last ten European away games (W7 D2 L1).
• Two-time UEFA Cup winners, Mönchengladbach have made it to the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League for the first time. They have not reached a European quarter-final since losing to Feyenoord in the 1995/96 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
• UEFA Cup winners in 1997, Schalke last reached the quarter-finals in 2011/12, when they were eliminated by Athletic Club.
Links and trivia
• Monchengladbach is around 60km from Gelsenkirchen.
• This is Gladbach’s 100th UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League game.
• Former team-mates
Yann Sommer (Gladbach) Breel Embolo (Schalke) – Basel, 2014
Jannick Vestergaard (Gladbach) Franco Di Santo (Schalke) – Werder Bremen, 2015
Timothée Kolodziejczak (Gladbach) Yevhen Konoplyanka and Coke (Schalke) – Sevilla, 2015–16
• Gladbach’s Brazilian midfielder Raffael played for Schalke – on loan from Dynamo Kyiv – in spring 2013, scoring twice in 16 Bundesliga games.
• Schalke’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has scored 34 UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League goals, and needs six more to match Henrik Larsson’s competition record of 40.
• Gladbach (1975 1979) and Schalke (1997) are among four former UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League winners in the round of 16 along with Anderlecht (1983) and Ajax (1992).
• Lars Stindl’s 12-minute hat-trick in Gladbach’s 4-2 comeback win at Fiorentina in the round of 32 second leg was the second fastest in UEFA Europa League history (a few seconds slower than Claudiu Keşerü for Steaua Bucureşti against AaB in September 2014).
• One of 12 Swedish players still involved in the round of 16, Gladbach’s Oscar Wendt is dreaming of playing in the UEFA Europa League final in his nation’s capital, Stockholm.
The coaches
• Dieter Hecking took command at Gladbach in December 2016, replacing André Schubert. He started his playing career as a midfielder at the club. He has coached in the Bundesliga with Alemannia Aachen, Hannover, Nürnberg and most recently Wolfsburg, from December 2012 to October 2016.
• Schalke coach Markus Weinzierl progressed 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 match.
Penalty shoot-outs
• Schalke’s record in four UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W2 D2:
W 4-1 A v FC Internazionale Milano (1996/97 UEFA Cup final)
L 5-4 A v SK Slavia Praha (1998/99 UEFA Cup first round)
L 3-1 A v Brøndby IF (2003/04 UEFA Cup second round)
W 4-1 A v FC Porto (2007/08 UEFA Champions League round of 16)
• Gladbach lost their only previous UEFA penalty shoot-out:
L 4-3 A v Everton (1970/71 European Champion Clubs’ Cup second round
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