Both Schalke and Mainz have had mixed success in the opening exchanges and this match will be an opportunity for both teams to improve their current league position.

The Miners have endured several difficult campaigns and they hope to again challenge for Champions League berths, but that will not be an easy task.

Schalke enjoyed a pretty good start to the new league championship, winning three of first four fixtures, but back to back defeats to Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim derailed their top 4 bid.

The Miners have since showed some improvement, playing out a 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen at home before defeating very good Hertha side on the road.

Schalke will now want to further close the gap behind their rivals for Champions League positions and they can be backed at 1.83 (5/6) to claim maximum points.

Alessandro Schopf is close to full fitness after recovering from injury and he is in contention after playing for the U23 side together with talented forward Fabian Reese.

However, the likes of Matija Nastasic (ankle), Pablo Insua (ribs) and Weston McKennie (thigh) are all expected to miss out.

Probable starting line-up (3-5-2): Fahrmann – Stambouli, Naldo, Kehrer – Caligiuri, Goretzka, Meyer, Harit, Oczipka – Di Santo, Burgstaller.

Unlike their next opponents, Mainz had a pretty disappointing start to the new season, losing four of first five fixtures.

The team finally hit the ground running near the end of September and embarked on a good run of results that still lasts.

Namely, Mainz managed to defeat Hertha and Hamburg SV at home, while sharing spoils with Wolfsburg on the road, thus moving away from the danger zone.

They remain in the bottom half of the standings, but with 10 points to their name, Mainz are also close to European positions.

It is important to note that the Opel Arena outfit are winless in last eight away games in Bundesliga (D2 L6), and they scored just one goal in last five.

Gerrit Holtmann picked up a muscle injury playing for the reserves and he misses out, while Niko Bungert, Karim Onisiwo and Phillipp Klement are sidelined as well.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Adler – Donati, Bell, Diallo, Brosinski – Gbamin, Latza – Oztunali, Maxim, De Biasis – Muto.