Week 22 - Match preview

Magath aiming to add to points cushion against Cologne

In FC Cologne the Royal Blues play host to one of the best away teams in the Bundesliga at the VELTINS Arena on Sunday (1530 CET). "FC have gone eight games without a defeat away from home," warned Felix Magath. But Schalke are determined and optimistic that they can end their run.

"Three points against Cologne would help us greatly for the remaining games to come," stressed Magath. Eleven points separate the Royal Blues from sixth place. "But it's always good to have an even bigger points cushion," said Magath with one eye on his side's forthcoming away fixtures, for example in Leverkusen and Hamburg, and also the home clash with Bayern Munich.

The 56-year-old was reluctant to speculate or make any predictions as to how the rest of the campaign will pan out in terms of his own team's results or those of their rivals. He said: "We won't know until after the top-of-the-table clashes in March and April how things are likely to go until the end of the season."

Turning to FC Cologne Magath said he had plenty of respect for Sunday's visitors. "Cologne are well organised and stable defensively and their attacking play has improved significantly," he explained. "They're also much more of a threat from pieces."

The Schalke coach expects Cologne to play with just one striker at the VELTINS Arena. "But I don't know for sure as Zvonimir Soldo won't tell me," he added with a grin. "Just because Soldo played under me at Stuttgart and we got on really well doesn't mean he lets me into his starting eleven plans." Ultimately, however, whether FC play with one striker or two was not so important, continued Magath. "I don't worry about things I have no influence over," he said.

His own tactics are a different matter, of course. "I think the best way to break them open is down the flanks," predicted Magath, who is not planning many changes compared with Wednesday's cup-tie in Osnabrück. "At most there'll be one change to the squad," he explained. That one change will not be Heiko Westermann, Carlos Zambrano or Peer Kluge, however, who have been out injured for the last few weeks.