Schalke 04 vs. Borussia M’gladach / Bundesliga – The first match of the round and again a derby just like on the last Friday, but this time the two teams, who are sixth and third in the standings, fight a big battle to qualify for the Champions League. Both teams have started very well second part of the season and Schalke won and drew once but for them this will be the second consecutive derby and they had more difficult rivals than Borussia who won both matches but it played against teams positioned in the lower part of the table. These two teams have made the same result at home, while in the first part of the season Borussia won at home by high 4-1. Begins: 06.02.2015 – 20:30 CET

Schalke 04
Schalke started very well the second half of the season and it made the same results in the first two rounds of the continuation as in the last two matches of the first part, which means a win and a draw. The difference was that the opponents at the beginning of the second part were much stronger and therefore the results are more valuable. They started with a home win against Hannover, which was expected, although it was not easy at all and the match was undecided till the very end. During the week they faced Bayern in Munich, and this away match has been painful for years, however, this time they managed to remain undefeated and are the first team in the Bundesliga who stayed undefeated two times this season against Bayern.

Both times the result read at the end 1-1 but the match in Munich was quite unusual and at the end Schalke can be sorry that it hadn’t win because they had a player more for almost the entire match and they missed the penalty. They conceded a goal with a player more but have managed to equalise, despite that they played quite fearfully. The problem with absences is getting bigger, so new on the list is goalkeeper Giefer who is injured and was replaced by young Wellenreuther. Refreshments in Munich were Sam and Matip, while now there could be new changes.

Probable lineups Schalke 04: Wellenreuther – Howedes, Matip, Nastasic – Uchida, Fuchs – Neustadter – Boateng, M. Meyer, Sam – Choupo-Moting

Borussia M’gladbach
Borussia has even better start the second part of the season and they won two matches with a clean sheet. However, opponents were Stuttgart away and Freiburg at home and these teams are positioned at very rear of the table, so victories of 1-0 are not something special. However, Borussia plays like that for the most of this season and matches when they completely outclass opponents are simply rare. Victories were often minimal but this team hardly concede goals, having the second best defence in the league.

Besides winning by the two matches the same result, exactly the same team played both of them and even the scoreres, Herrmann and assistant Hrgota, were the same. For this match they will have to change the team, because stopper Stranzl was injured on Wednesday and he is not going to Gelsenkirchen and his replacement is A. Dominguez. There is no midfielder Hahn and it is interesting that coach Favre had changed the formation and otherwise standard Raffael is on the bench, while Hrgota is the lone striker.

Probable lineups Borussia M’gladbach: Sommer – Korb, Jantschke, A. Dominguez, Wendt – Kramer, G. Xhaka – Herrmann, F. Johnson – M. Kruse – Hrgota

Schalke 04 – Borussia M’gladbach PICK
According to what the teams have showed in the two rounds of the season continuation, the defences are stronger parts of both teams having received only one goal in total. Schalke has big problems with the team so they might be satisfied with a draw, for which Borussia always has a ready tactics and on top of it receives very little goals when plays away.

Pick: under 2.5 goals

Stake: 5/10

Odds: 2.00