quarter final - match preview

Slomka calls for heroic performance against Barca

Never before have the Royal Blues experienced so much media interest. The conference room at the club hotel, the Miramar, was packed solid. Fourteen cameras and some two dozen microphones had been set up to record the comments made by head coach Mirko Slomka and striker Halil Altintop ahead of Wednesday's Champions League quarter-final clash in Barcelona.

Unperturbed by all the hype, it was a focused, yet relaxed Mirko Slomka who faced the media on Tuesday. The Schalke boss summarised the game's importance as follows: "The ultimate for any footballer is to win titles. So the UEFA Cup win in 1997 means more than getting through against Barcelona. Obviously it would be a big step forward but we won't have won anything. We'll still have a bit further to go."

Slomka feels his players showed how Barcelona's stars can be beaten in the second half of the first leg. "We played really well against an assured passing side who mainly operated through the middle", he said, pointing to the match stats. The Royal Blues registered 16 shots on goal in the second half, as opposed to one for Barcelona, and over the 90 minutes restricted Xavi, Iniesta and Co to just five shots and three crosses. "We have a chance in Barcelona as well", concluded Slomka.

The Schalke boss will not be using the 0-0 draw against Getafe on Sunday as a yardstick, however. "Even though the team played well against Barca, that result wouldn't be enough. We have to score at least one." And Slomka refuses to accept that Barcelona are going through a crisis. "They are undefeated in the Champions League this season and have won seven of their nine games."

Yet he is just as reluctant to say it would be a "miracle" were Schalke to go through. "For me the word is too strong. I prefer to put it like this: the fans should be given a heroic performance. If we play to our maximum potential and individual players such as Halil stand out, we can win the game."

To get the players in the right frame of mind for the highlight at the Camp Nou, they will again be shown a film on the day of the game. Before the second leg in Porto they watched an edited version of a Mohammad Ali fight and the 3-3 draw between Liverpool and AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final. Liverpool were 3-0 down at half-time, but turned things around in the second 45 before eventually winning a penalty shoot-out.

In Porto the film had the desired effect, with the Royal Blues securing victory against the 2004 Champions League winners, also in a penalty shoot-out. Though Slomka was unwilling to reveal what the film would be before the Barcelona game, he did say this: "The video we'll be showing tomorrow is even better."

The injury situation is as follows: long-term absentees Zlatan Bajramovic, Ivan Rakitic and Markus Heppke are all missing, as is Peter Lovenkrands, who is in Scotland at the bedside of his seriously ill daughter. There is also some doubt over Heiko Westermann (ankle), Christian Pander (groin) and Mladen Krstajic (knee). Slomka: "We won't know until Wednesday whether they'll be fit to play."