A final match for a place in the last eight against FC basel on the last day of the champions league group stage is an unpleasant prospect for horst heldt.
"We should avoid that and for that we need a win in bucharest," said the manager of FC schalke 04 before tuesday’s match at champions steaua. After the "AB 1004" flight from dusseldorf, the schalker squad landed in the rumanian capital on monday afternoon with mixed feelings. But jens keller is basically optimistic. "We will show a good game here and want to score," said the schalker coach.
Even the absence of timo hildebrand should not have weighed so heavily on us. The stammtorhut player is absent due to a bruised hoof suffered in the 3:3 loss in frankfurt. For ralf fahrmann to celebrate his champions league debut this season. Although the 25-year-old wears the "no. 1" on the jersey, but has so far only played in the national league match in braunschweig (3:2) on 19. October. While lars unnerstall will take his place on the bench, fahrmann is preparing for a hebe dance in the 55,634-seat national arena and is eagerly awaiting his chance of preservation on the international stage.
"I’m really looking forward to the game and I’m in a very positive mood. I see this as an opportunity that I’ll try to take advantage of," fahrmann said before the final training session at the national arena. He does not see himself as a "makeshift" player, but naturally wants to play more often. "It’s clear. Everyone always wants to play. It will certainly be a great match on the biggest stage in europe. And there I will do my best against."
After the roller coaster ride of the draw in frankfurt, at least the 3:0 in the first leg against bucharest and the good away record in the konigsklasse give courage for the difficult mission. Only on 4. Keller’s eleven conceded their first defeat of the season to league leaders chelsea FC (0:3) after six games away from home without a loss (four wins, two draws). We now want to build on these achievements.
The two opening victories against steaua (3:0) and in basel (1:0) were followed by two 0:3 defeats against the english top club FC chelsea, which is leading the table of group E with nine points. Behind them, the konigsblauen have it in their own hands with six points to catch FC basel (5) and bucharest (2). Should schalke win at the rumanian record champions and table leaders, and chelsea at the same time successfully take revenge in basel for the embarrassing 1:2 in london, the revierclub would already be the fourth club in the club’s history to be named K.O.-round participants fixed.
A sporting and financially attractive and challenging goal, especially since the anger over the 3:3 loss at eintracht has not yet dissipated. Benedikt howede’s sting is particularly deep: "it’s probably a good thing that we can put a match like this behind us and look ahead," said the schalke captain, referring to the tough program with seven games to go until christmas. It’s happening one after the other. "Now we first want to win in bucharest." Hero erganzte but skeptical. "If we again show such weaknesses as we did on saturday, we won’t have to play there at all."
Regardless of the goalkeeper change, trainer jens keller will make slight changes to frankfurt’s eleven, which led 2-0 after just 18 minutes before eintracht turned the game completely in the meantime. Dennis aogo will probably move back into the defensive chain, roman neustadter will get a new chance in midfield. A small question mark remains behind julian draxler, who is complaining of a flu infection.
The revierelf should at least show a different attitude compared to the frankfurt game against the team of former bundesliga pro laurentiu reghecampf over 90 minutes. After all, steaua could not get any self-confidence on the weekend, in the away game at pandurii targu jiu, the team did not get beyond a 1:1.
Anticipated lineups:
Steaua bucharest: tatarusanu – georgievski, szukala, gardos, latovlevici – prepelita, bourceanu – popa, stanciu, tanase – piovaccari
FC schalke 04: fahrmann – uchida, howedes, matip, aogo – neustadter, jones – farfan, boateng, draxler (meyer) – szalai
Referee: bas nijhuis (netherlands)