week 27 - match preview

Lovenkrands adds to confidence ahead of Bayern trip

Schalke's injury situation has eased slightly ahead of this Saturday's battle of the giants at Bayern Munich. As league leaders the Royal Blues are targeting at least a point against the side currently in fourth place. But head coach Mirko Slomka will not be underestimating the quality of the opposition for a second.

First the good news: Peter Lovenkrands is back in the squad after working hard and looking very sharp in training. A decision on Gustavo Varela, however, will not be taken until after Thursday afternoon's training session. "I have some concerns as far as Gustavo is concerned. It looks as if he won't be able to make the trip this weekend and will spend another week in rehabilitation training", said Slomka. After recovering a recent bout of bronchitis Rafinha has resumed full training and is likely to be fit in time for Saturday. Markus Heppke, however, is being dogged by groin trouble and is definitely ruled out. "Otherwise all our non-suspended players are available for selection", emphasised Slomka, who on Thursday was able to welcome the last of the players returning from international duty. While Kevin Kuranyi featured for just 45 minutes against Denmark on Wednesday, when he made his debut as Germany captain, Levan Kobiashvili made a 61 minute appearance for Georgia and both Mladen Krstajic (Serbia) and Hamit Altintop (Turkey) were in action from start to finish. "They have no major knocks, though, and should all be able to do some regeneration work", said Slomka.

Slomka has the added advantage that Bayern are some distance back in fourth place and simply have to win if they are to remain in the title race. "They are under enormous pressure. They know that if they lose, VfB Stuttgart, and thus a place in the Champions League, could move a long way off. In the home match against Bremen we saw how they deal with pressure." Schalke have also demonstrated that they have the wherewithal to beat the top teams: "A repeat of the success we had at Werder would obviously be a superb result", said Slomka. The Schalke boss is not about to disregard the Munich side's strengths, however. "They're a top side with great individual quality, as we saw in the reverse fixture when two individual moments of skill brought them two goals." Yet for all his respect for Saturday's opponents he was keen to make one more point: "We know our own strengths and we're absolutely determined to win this game."

General manager Andreas Müller pointed out that the championship race would still be far from over were this to be the case: "There'll still be another 21 points to play for. Even if we do win in Munich, you don't win the league with 56 points. But obviously a win in Munich would be a major boost for our chances."