A fortnight on from our last meeting, Chelsea entertain the Bundesliga side aiming for a landmark European win. A Chelsea win would clear the way to the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League and exorcise the ghosts from a halloween hangover on Tyneside.

Teams stuck on the same points are ranked according to head-to-head results, not goal difference, and the Blues have already won 3-0 in Germany. A win tonight and one other from either Basel away or Steaua at home will see the Blues through to the Round of 16.

Chelsea have won six of the seven matches against German visitors and drawn the other, with Stuttgart, in 2004. Saturday's Barclays Premier League visitors West Brom are on a seven-game losing streak on the Fulham Road.

On Tuesday evening Jose Mourinho revealed that Fernando Torres was set to miss out through injury the crucial Champions League clash against FC Schalke 04 on Wednesday evening in Stamford Bridge, kick-off 19:45 hours (BST). “Fernando has a muscular injury, we have to wait for the scans tomorrow but it's easy to say he's out tomorrow and at the weekend, after that is the international break and we'll have to see if he can recover”, he explained.

Success tonight would bring Chelsea's 100th win in UEFA competitions. The 10 victories in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup are not included in that as the tournament was not under UEFA's auspices. One of those was a 1-0 triumph against Munich 1860 at the Bridge in March 1966, our first over a Bundesliga side.
The Matchday 1 defeat against Basel was our first home loss in the group stage in 30 matches; 22 of the previous 29 were won and seven drawn.

Schalke looked jaded against Chelsea two weeks ago -Torres scoring a double in a superb performance (0-3)- and slumped 1-3 again the following weekend at home to Dortmund.

However, last weekend the Gelsenkirchen side revived to take all three points away at Hertha Berlin in front of a 70,000-strong crowd. The hosts dominated possession without scoring whereas Schalke broke the deadlock during their best period, Adam Szalai heading in Dennis Aogo's corner. Julian Draxler ended Hertha's strong rally for an equaliser deep into stoppage time with a 20-yard strike.

Two weeks ago on the same night Chelsea were stunning Schalke, Steaua netted a last-minute equaliser against Basel to draw in Bucharest. They met again tonight in Switzerland full of confidence. The Romanian league leaders vanquished Viitorul Constanta 4-0 away this weekend. Their Swiss rivals, at home, put three past St Gallen. A win for Basel would virtually condemn Steaua to fourth place in the group with two games to go.

The nationality of tonight's referee Svein Oddvar Moen might invite unfair comparisons with his fellow Norwegian Tom Henning Ovrebo and the Chelsea-Barcelona game in 2009. When interviewed even Ovrebo himself admitted, 'Everyone who knows the laws of the game knows I should have done things differently.'

Moen, though, has twice handled Chelsea games - Copenhagen at the Bridge and Genk away - and performed admirably. He actually awarded the Blues a penalty in Belgium but David Luiz's spot-kick was saved.

- Match preview by chelseafc.com (Paul Dutton and Rick Glanwill)