Schalke 04 are 45 minutes away from a surprise defeat and a possible blow to their hopes of Champions League progression after falling behind to Slovenian side Maribor.

The Royal Blues, who are currently 10th in the Bundesliga after an indifferent start to their domestic season, made all of the early running and could have been ahead inside five minutes, but for Jasmin Handanovic's save from Klass-Jan Huntelaar's shot.

Schalke continued to enjoy chances to score, with Kevin-Prince Boateng and Huntelaar again going close in a whirlwind opening to the game in Gelsenkirchen.

Maribor struggled to get a foothold in the match and were largely reduced to shooting from distance in the first quarter of the game, with Dare Vrsic's long-range effort failing to test Ralf Fahrmann on 11 minutes.

Boateng and Julian Draxler then squandered further opportunities for the home side before the Slovenians enjoyed their best attack of the first 30 minutes as Damjan Bohar brought a solid save out of the German shot-stopper.

Maribor grew in confidence and Schalke's defence began to come under greater pressure as Marcos Tavares drew another stop from Fahrmann.

The visitors' adventure in attack was rewarded after Mitja Viler's pinpoint cross found Bohar and the forward smashed his shot into the net.