Raul will return to Spain for the first time since his move from Real Madrid when Schalke take on Valencia tonight in their Champions League last 16 first leg tie.
The former Spain striker helped Real win 15 trophies over 18 seasons before moving to the Bundesliga. Raul has scored 12 goals in 28 appearances for Schalke in his first season abroad.
"I think we have a very good chance of reaching the quarter-finals," said Raul, who has scored 13 goals in 25 games against Valencia, including a Champions League final triumph in 2000. "We've shown in the group stage what we are capable of."
While Schalke have never lost at the Valencia's Mestalla Stadium, the Spanish club come into the match in excellent form.
They have won six of seven matches for their best start to a calendar year since 1949/50. A 2-1 win at Atletico Madrid on Saturday moved them into third place in the league.
Valencia have been given a boost in attack with Juan Mata back in the line-up after the Spain international forward missed several weeks because of an ankle injury.
"We are focused 100 per cent on Schalke," Unai Emery, the Valencia coach, said. "We have had a lot of people analysing Schalke, and we want to transmit this excitement, this passion for the game [tonight] so that we all can enjoy it."
Valencia are returning to the knockout stage for the first time in four years while Schalke are back after three seasons. Both clubs went on to reach the quarter-finals last time.
Schalke managed draws in their previous two games at the Mestalla, while the clubs split the two games played in Germany. Valencia have not beaten German opponents on home soil since a 3-0 win over Bayern Munich in 1996.
"We are optimistic," Felix Magath, the Schalke coach, said. "We are going to try to score the away goal that would help us."
Raul, who scored 323 goals in 741 appearances for Real, will move ahead of Filippo Inzaghi, the AC Milan striker, as Uefa's all-time leading goalscorer with his next goal. The pair are tied with 70 goals each.
Raul is not the only one making his return to Spain. Christoph Metzelder, his former Real teammate, is also coming back and Jose Manuel Jurado is returning after joining Schalke from Atletico Madrid.
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Tentative schedule of 2017/18 Ashes series
1st Test November 23-27, The Gabba, Brisbane
2nd Test December 2-6, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
3rd Test Dcember 14-18, Waca, Perth
4th Test December 26-30, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
5th Test January 4-8, Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier
Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August
Group A
Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar
Group B
UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
England 12-man squad for second Test
v West Indies which starts Thursday: Rory Burns, Joe Denly, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root (captain), Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Ben Foakes, Sam Curran, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson, Jack Leach
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.