While their current Champions League campaign is drawing to a close, Schalke will attempt to boost their hopes of playing in Europe’s elite competition next season by defeating red-hot Werder Bremen. The Weserstadion outfit surprised everyone by winning their last five league matches and they appear set to mount a serious challenge for top 4 positions.

Decent performance against Real

Schalke did well to secure their place in the Champions League knockout stages by pipping Sporting Lisbon to the second place in their group, but they were in turn very unfortunate to be pitted against holders Real Madrid. Their job was made even more difficult as star striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar was forced to come off just after the half-hour mark, but the hosts, nonetheless, had a good chance to cancel out Cristiano Ronaldo’s opener before conceding the second goal in the closing stages. Coach Roberto Di Matteo and his players can take some positives from the Real clash, but it will not be easy for them to match Werder just three days later, especially with their attacking problems there for everyone to see. With Huntelaar unavailable and Choupo-Moting struggling since returning from Africa Cup of Nations, the Miners have now failed to score in two successive games, while they last scored more than one goal in a match over two months ago. This means the hosts will probably rely on their strong back line in an attempt to return to winning ways, and they are unlikely to take too many risks.

Klaas Jan Huntelaar continues to serve domestic suspension, whereas Ralf Fahrmann, Julian Draxler, Jefferson Farfan and Chinedu Obasi are out injured.

Nobody saw this coming

The current season has been a genuine rollercoaster ride for Werder Bremen, who sat at Bundesliga rock-bottom ahead of the winter break and four games into the second part of the league campaign they are in a position to fight for Champions League qualification. The team have shown tremendous progress under new coach Viktor Skripnik and while they finished the first part of the season with a narrow win over Borussia Dortmund, Werder continued the rich vein of form in the new year, winning all four games since the league campaign resumed. Having defeated top 4 rivals Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen and Augsburg in their last three fixtures, the Weserstadion outfit will be hoping to continue the trend against out-of-form Schalke, and thus further improve the league position ahead of the final stretch of the season. It is perfectly clear that the team are playing with a lot of confidence at the moment and while their away record is far from impressive, that did not stop them from beating Hoffenheim in their previous fixture on the road.

There are no fresh worries for Viktor Skripnik, but Alejandro Galvez, Ozkan Yildirim, Philipp Bargfrede, Melvyn Lorenzen, Marnon Busch and Luca Zander remain unavailable.

Verdict

Schalke gave their best against Real Madrid and still came short, and with the team facing serious problems up front, they could find it hard to play to their potential just three days after the Champions League clash. Meanwhile, Werder are playing their best football in years and I wouldn’t bet against them getting something from Veltins Arena.

Top pick: Werder not to lose   1.91 (10/11) @ Coral

Alternative pick 1: Under 2.5 goals   2.15 (23/20) @ Betfair

Alternative pick 2: Away win   4.00 (3/1) @ Coral