week 22 - match preview
Three reasons why the Royal Blues have "a great chance" on Saturday
This Saturday sees not only the visit of the Bundesliga leaders in Bayern Munich, but also of a club who haven't won in Gelsenkirchen since October 1998. General manager Andreas Müller: "Bayern obviously have a great incentive to pick up three points at the VELTINS Arena at long last. And we'll be out to stop them."
Though Germany's most successful club could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Hamburg last weekend and also laboured their way to a 1-0 extra-time win over Munich 1860 in the quarter-final of the DFB Cup in midweek, Schalke boss Mirko Slomka does not see this as an advantage for his team. "They are still putting teams under enormous pressure, but their strikers aren't hitting the target as often as they did at the beginning of the season. It's also been clear in recent games that Franck Ribery isn't fully fit yet."
Nevertheless Slomka doesn't feel his side will have an edge merely because the visitors were forced to go 120 minutes in the cup on Wednesday. "For one thing we're talking about players who are used to playing two games a week, for another Bayern have a big squad with two players of equal quality in every position."
The Munich side have been particularly impressive on the road just recently, as wins at Hansa Rostock and Hannover 96 in their last two away matches go to show. "In the reverse fixture at the Allianz Arena we showed we can compete with them, though", said Slomka, confident his side can build on this performance at the VELTINS Arena.
Whatever happens, the Schalke coach is sure the fans will see a very hard-fought encounter. And it is with fondness that he looks back to the last time the two sides met in Schalke in November 2006: "The goal Levan Kobiashvili scored to make it 2-0 still gives me goosepimples today." That game eventually ended 2-2, however. "But this time we want to win", he said, leaving no one in any doubt as to his intentions.
A win against the side from the Bavarian capital would be important for three reasons, according to Slomka. "It would keep us well in the running for third place and give us confidence for Wednesday's Champions League clash in Porto, and it would also add more spice to the title race. "That's motivation enough. We have a great chance against Bayern, it's as simple as that", summarised Slomka.
While the visitors will be definitely have to replace the suspended Mark van Bommel, Slomka is not ruling out a change to his side either. This was one reason for the friendly against Dynamo Moscow on Tuesday, when the players who have not had much match practice so far season were favoured. The game ended in a 5-0 win for the Royal Blues. "I saw some good things and it also gave me a chance to see how the players coped with the various systems", the Schalke boss said.
"Bayern will definitely provide a tough test", added Müller, "but the players have always shown character and played well even when the situation is critical. "And with the crowd behind us anything is possible."
