Schalke 04 vs Borussia Monchengladbach
VELTINS Arena, Gelsenkirchen
Friday, 17-01-2020 @10:30pm
Ref: Deniz Aytekin
Schalke will be eager for the three points since it will take them to the top four spots in the Bundesliga table.
They will be aiming to utilize their home ground advantage in the match.
Evidently, Schalke has lost only one of their nine home matches so far in their schedule.
Besides that, Schalke is without a home defeat for the last five months in major competitions. So, the host will be confident to play Monchengladbach at their own turf.
Even so, four of their unbeaten eight games at home were drawn in the end.
Along with that, Monchengladbach has lost three of their 8 away fixtures in the campaign so far. Also, three of these losses have come within the past five trips on the road.
Apart from that, Monchengladbach has taken a dip in form in their away games recently. Hence, the host has chances to take advantage of the opponent’s poor away form.
Even so, Monchengladbach cannot be written off easily. So, it is safer to go with a double chance in the game.
Also, Borussia Monchengladbach is known to make comebacks and they do need that to stay in the top part of the league table.
Schalke have 30 points on the board at halfway. It took them until Matchday 31 of 34 to reach that tally last season. The Royal Blues are unbeaten in their last eight Bundesliga matches on home soil, but have drawn four of their last six. Harit is Schalke’s top scorer (six) and assist provider (four) so far this term. He’s five games without a goal, though – his longest lean spell of the campaign. Gladbach enjoyed their best first half of a season for 43 years (35 points). When they last won the title in 1976/77, the Foals had 39 points at this juncture. Gladbach’s strikers have hit 22 goals combined so far this season. Schalke’s have registered seven. One of them, Breel Embolo, spent three years at Schalke, scoring 10 goals in 48 games. He’s already on six in 14 for Gladbach.
Schalke will have to do so without Weston McKennies remains sidelined until February courtesy of dislocating his shoulder. Alexander Nubel still has to sit out two more Matchdays courtesy of his red card in that same game, while Salif Sane and Benjamin Stambouli remain long-term absentees in defence. Talisman Harit is nursing a thigh problem.
Ramy Bensebaini is the only major absentee for the Foals, with Oscar Wendt expected to replace the injured left-back suffering from a muscular problem.
The upcoming Bundesliga fixtures
Saturday, 18-01-2020
-Hoffenheim vs Frankfurt @5:30pm
-Dusseldorf vs Bremen @5:30pm
-Mainz vs Freiburg @5:30pm
-Augsburg vs Dortmund @5:30pm
-Koln vs Wolfsburg @5:30pm
-Leipzig vs Union @8:30pm
Sunday, 19-01-2020
-Hertha vs Bayern @5:30pm
-Paderborn vs Leverkusen @8pm
