Veltins Arena
Schalke 04 will look to cement their place in the top four tonight against an in-form FSV Mainz 05 side who are statistically the fifth best team in the Bundesliga.
04 find themselves sitting comfortably in fourth but are only two points behind Borussia Dortmund who vacate the third and final Champions League spot. Since the Winter break Schalke 04 manager Jens Keller has got Die Königsblauen in Champions League contention.
Winning four of their four games this year, Schalke will look to get their fifth straight win which they haven’t managed since the 2001/02 season under former boss Huub Stevens.
“We’re on a roll at the moment,” said Keller at Thursday’s press conference. “The players have been incredibly focused in training.
“They’re very keen and at the same time having a lot of fun too. The positive mood in and around the club is doing the team a world of good,” said the 43-year-old.
Keller added: “The current form table makes pleasant reading at the moment but nothing more than that. The task now is to kick on against Mainz. The lads are ready and totally focused on this game and this game only. I won’t accept any talk of next week’s Champions League match against Real Madrid. Getting a positive result against Mainz is what counts now.”
Schalke goalkeeper Ralf Fährmann has being winning the plaudits in recent weeks. The 25-year-old German keeper has kept five clean sheets in their last eight games, conceding only three goals.
Captain Benedikt Höwedes said: “He brings the squad great charisma, both in matches and in training which is important. He’s very loud, very confident and that rubs off on us as defenders in front of him.”
Schalke welcome back wonderkid Julian Draxler and Nigerian Chinedu Obasi whilst defender Höwedes will miss the game through injury. Benedikt Saller and Julian Koch are both fit again for Mainz 05 and are in the squad. Joo-Ho Park who has both scored and assisted since the turn of the year faced a late fitness test this morning.
Youngster Leon Goretzka signed for Schalke from Vfl Bochum in the Summer and has made a number of appearances since, scoring two goals in the process. The 19-year-old scored against Bayer Levekusen in matchday 21 and Keller will have a tough decision who to play out on the left.
Thomas Tuchel’s men find themselves in 7th and are only one point behind Borussia Mönchengladbach who are in the final Europa League place. They face Schalke off the back of a 2-0 win against Hannover 96 and have lost just one of their last seven.
Speaking at his press conference Tuchel said: “We believe we’re capable of executing two top performances and know that we’ll need to as well.
“We’ve engineered the perfect situation for ourselves to be able to travel to Schalke without any pressure, allowing us to concentrate purely on our performance.”
Mainz 05 striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is becoming increasingly unhappy and told BILD Sport “The goal is, of course, always play from the beginning.” The 24-year-old is unhappy at being replaces 12 times in 20 games this season.
Schalke have won five of the last seven meets at home against Mainz 05. The previous meeting between the two finished 1-0 to Schalke at the Coface arena thanks to a Kevin Prince Boateng goal.
Possible line-ups:
Schalke: Fährmann – Höwedes, Felipe Santana, Matip, Kolasinac – K.-P. Boateng, Neustädter – Farfan, Meyer, Goretzka – Huntelaar
Mainz: Karius – Pospech, Bell, Noveski, Junior Diaz – Geis – Moritz, Malli – Koo – N. Müller, Okazaki
Talk of the Bundesliga 