Santander - match preview
Rutten calls for total concentration against Racing
Schalke made an ideal start to the UEFA Cup group stage with a 3-1 defeat of Paris Saint-Germain. And a win at Racing Santander on Thursday would see the Royal Blues take a giant stride towards the Round of 32. "We'll have to work hard for it, though", said Fred Rutten at today's press conference.
The Schalke boss made no secret of his admiration for Spanish football. "As a coach you have to like the way they play the game here", the 45-year-old said. Racing may only be in 15th place in La Liga, but a 4-2 win in Valencia at the weekend made Rutten sit up and take note.
"I think Racing have enough quality to win at home. Besides, after the 1-0 defeat in the opener at FC Twente they'll be going all out to beat us", continued Rutten, before issuing a warning to his players. "They're capable of playing some great football. If we allow them the space to do that, it'll be difficult for us."
Racing are playing in Europe for the first time in their history and on paper are perhaps the 'weakest' team in the group, but Schalke will not let that deceive them. "It's our third away game in a row and Spain is never an easy place to win", stressed Rutten.
The Dutchman knows what his required of his side if they are to do well at the El Sardinero: "It doesn't matter whether we're playing Cottbus, Racing or Bayern, we're a team who need to be fully focused at all times. If we aren't, Racing may well score. And that would make it particularly tough for us." Last Saturday's match in Cottbus serves as a warning, even though Schalke came away with a 2-0 victory. "We won there, but we also made the kind of mistakes that could have serious consequences against teams with even more quality", he explained.
In squad terms things are looking very good for the Royal Blues ahead of the game. Christian Pander, who is doing some extra training with the second team in Gelsenkirchen and may feature in the squad for Sunday's visit of Bayern Munich, and Levan Kenia (ankle injury) are the only players not available for selection. A total of 21 players have thus made the trip to Spain.
Asked whether he would rotate his squad ahead of the top-the-table clash at the VELTINS Arena, Rutten said: "I think we're in good physical shape, as we showed when we played both PSG and Bielefeld in less than 48 hours. Having said that, after the game in Madrid we made three or four changes for the Bundesliga match against VfL Bochum. With a view to Sunday we might do so again."
That does nothing to change the underlying strategy, however. "We want to secure qualification from the group stage as quickly as possible. A win will help us along the way, but we'll have to work hard for it", concluded Rutten. Jefferson Farfan is already oozing confidence: "We've done our homework and know what to expect from Racing. I expect us to get the best result."
