Week 21 - Match preview
Royal Blues desperate to make amends
Schalke will take the field at SC Freiburg this Saturday (1530 CET) intent on exacting revenge for the result of the reverse fixture. "When the players think back to that 1-0 defeat they should sense the obligation they have to make amends," said head coach Felix Magath on Thursday.
The 56-year-old takes confidence from the way his side has progressed this term. "We've gelled as a team and advanced in terms of our play," he stressed. He also pointed out that the circumstances are completely different now compared with the reverse fixture. "Freiburg caught us on a bad weekend, especially as we were nearing the end of the transfer period and one or two unsettling reports were doing the rounds in the media," said Magath, referring to the incorrect claims that Rafinha had joined Bayern Munich.
"We've been very good away from home so far and we want to underline that fact in Freiburg," Magath continued. "But that's no reason to underestimate them. Our victories have been the result of hard work, after all, not from playing all-out attacking football. And Freiburg haven't won any of their last six matches so they'll be determined to take something off us.
"But as we dropped three points in the reverse fixture, it's now up to us to get them back", Magath continued. The Schalke boss is pleased with his side's current position in the table but was keen to point out that this can change at any moment. "There's always a risk of the players and people associated with club seeing things as too certain. But I know from my own experience how quickly a lead can dissolve," said Magath, recalling the 2007/2008 season. Back then Bayer Leverkusen were in fourth place on matchday 20, while his Wolfsburg side were only seventh. At the end of the season, however, Wolfsburg were fifth, and thus in Europe, whereas Leverkusen finished empty-handed in seventh.
"There's no guarantee that we'll finish in the top five," Magath warned. "We don't have an experienced team, after all. We're a very young side that's still lacking in stability. There'll still be phases this season when we'll drop points as a result of making mistakes."
The Schalke boss also pointed out that the pressure on his players will increase from week to week, unless the situation in the table changes significantly. "There'll be games where there's so much at stake, games you can compare with cup finals," he said. He was therefore unwilling to talk about a race for the title, saying: "We'll try and maintain our lead over the teams below us for as long as possible, and if possible increase it."
