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Stevens wary of Plzen Schalke coach Huub Stevens is not taking anything for granted ahead of his side's Europa League clash with Viktoria Plzen.

The Royal Blues scored an away goal in the Czech Republic a week ago, but the 1-1 draw means the tie is still open ahead of the second leg at the Arena AufSchalke.

"We still have one half to go," said Stevens.

"The chances of us going through are 50/50, maybe we even have a slight advantage from the first leg since we are at home." A 0-0 draw would be enough for the Bundesliga side to reach the last 16, but Stevens insists he is not thinking about that.

"If we can, we want to win," he is quoted as saying on the Bundesliga club's website.

"And we want to build on our good performance against Wolfsburg." Stevens expects to face a tougher task than his side did in the 4-0 win over the Wolves, though.

"Plzen have a lot of quality in their side and we saw that in the first leg," he added.

"They may not have any big names in their side like Barcelona or Real Madrid, for example, but they still play good football and are very compact." Stevens may use Jermaine Jones, who is suspended in the Bundesliga, but both Peer Kluge and Lewis Holtby are injured and not expected to figure.

"They are not fit enough yet," said the Dutch coach. "But I will wait and see how our last training session goes before deciding on the line-up.

Plzen will be without captain Pavel Horvath, but his understudy David Limbersky will assume the armband confident they can pull off what would be considered an upset.

"I firmly believe we're capable of doing it without him," the defender said on www.uefa.com.

Schalke 04 vs Plzen

Last modified 23:07 23/02/12

Huntelaar hat-trick inspires Schalke Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored two extra-time goals as his hat-trick guided Schalke to a 3-1 victory on the night and a 4-2 aggregate success over 10-man Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League.

Huntelaar opened the scoring in the seventh minute to give Huub Stevens' team a 2-1 lead in the tie and with their opponents reduced to 10 men following Marek Bakos' red card they appeared destined to progress.

However, Frantisek Rajtoral levelled two minutes from time and Schalke could have wobbled but they dominated the extra half hour with Huntelaar's double easing them through.

The Bundesliga side enjoyed an ideal start when Huntelaar slotted home Julian Draxler's cross from the left.

Raul headed wide and Draxler put a free-kick to the left of the goal as Schalke looked to increase their lead.

However, the Czech side came within inches of equalising in the 27th minute when Milan Petrzela's cross was met by Daniel Kolar whose header hit the post.

There were few clear-cut openings as the first half ticked down with the hosts in pole position at half-time.

Plzen had plenty of possession but the complexion of the game changed with half an hour to go when Bakos was given a straight red card for serious foul play.

It was a seriously uphill task for Plzen now. Fuchs sent a long-range free-kick over and Raul headed wide as Schalke attempted to make their man advantage pay.

Chinedu Obasi's 25-yard shot was cleared by Frantisek Sevinsky and Benedikt Howedes also went wide from distance.

A home victory appeared the most likely outcome until Rajtoral intervened two minutes from time, smashing the ball into the top right-hand corner of the goal to force the game into extra-time.

Schalke started with real intent. Huntelaar's 25-yard shot was parried by Marek Cech before the Plzen keeper kept out Fuchs' free-kick while both Obasi and Alexander Baumjohann fired over.

Cech parried Baumjohann's corner and Huntelaar shot wide and Schalke's pressure paid off seconds into the second period of extra-time when Huntelaar headed home Obasi's cross from the right.

Shortly after, Baumjohann failed to seal victory when he failed to direct his header from inside the six-yard box.