Schalke climbed to third place with a valuable win in Leverkusen and the Miners are now looking to continue the good run of results. Hoffenheim remained in the top part of the table as they recorded a narrow win over Borussia M’gladbach, before beating Koln in DFB Pokal.

Schalke continue to impress

Having reached the Champions League semi-finals last season, Schalke showed that they definitely have a lot of potential and they have so far done really well to live up to the expectations. The Miners picked up seven points from first three Europa League games, while climbing to 3rd place in Bundesliga, and have been in amazing form of late. After the unexpected home defeat to Kaiserslautern, Schalke beat AEK Larnaca, Bayer Leverkusen and Karlsruher away from home, scoring eight goals and without conceding in the process. With players like Huntelaar, Raul and Farfan up front, it is little wonder that Huub Stevens’ side are scoring goals for fun, but three successive clean sheets prove that they are also pretty strong at the back. The Miners now have a great chance to get even closer to leaders Bayern Munich and everything suggests that they will be able to continue the promising run of results.

Lars Unnerstall should continue to deputize for injured Ralf Fahrmann as new keeper Timo Hildebrand still lacks match fitness, while there are no fresh injuries in the squad.

Ibisevic is back

Having finished last league campaign in 11th place and after failing to reinforce the squad in the summer, Hoffenheim were not expected to play a major role in Bundesliga this season, but Holger Stanislawski’s side have been doing really well this term. They managed to beat Borussia Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Borussia M’gladbach at home, while also beating Mainz and Augsburg on the travels, although the team showed some under-par performances as well. While home defeat to Werder was somewhat disappointing, away defeats to Hannover, Koln and Stuttgart were pretty much expected, as Hoffenheim do tend to struggle away from home. Key striker Vedad Ibisevic has just returned from the lengthy injury lay-off, but even though he scored the only goal against Borussia M’gladbach, it is evident that he will need some time to return to his best, while another important player Ryan Babel has been pretty inconsistent of late. Taking everything into consideration, Hoffenheim should give Schalke a run for their money, but I doubt they can stop the high-flying Miners from taking all three points.

First choice keeper Tom Starke could return to the side after recovering from injury, while Ibisevic, Rudy, Vorsah, Firmino and Sigurdsson should start after being rested in midweek.

Verdict

Schalke are playing great football at the moment and they are expected to continue the good run of results. Hoffenheim have been doing well of late, but they lack some quality to be able to face title contenders and I doubt they can get something from this clash.

Our prediction: Home win

Odds: 2.00 (1/1)

Bookmaker: Unibet