This Wednesday, FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund will face off in the U19 Bundesliga West. S04 coach Norbert Elgert is looking forward to the match.

Next Wednesday evening (18:30), FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund will face off in the U19 Bundesliga West derby. While Black & Yellow are top of the table, Royal Blue are in second place. S04 coach Norbert Elgert is hoping that some of the injured players will be able to return to the pitch.

Schalke have recently won three games in a row in the league. On Sunday, there was a 3:0 win against bottom of the table SC Verl. “We’ll recover well and Dortmund will certainly do the same. We don’t have much time to analyze the game and we hope that one or two players will be back with us,” explained Elgert ahead of the derby.

Zaid Amousso-Tchibara made a brief appearance against Verl. Nevertheless, other Schalke players are questionable for the game against Dortmund. “Tchibara was injured and his short outing against Verl actually went quite well. We’re missing Mika Khadr in central defense and we don’t yet know whether he’ll be able to play against Dortmund. Philip Buczkowski and Berkay Karaca are also injured and will definitely not be able to play,” revealed Elgert.

Sepp Herberger has said before that you have to give every game 100 percent and that will also be our task in this English week.

Norbert Elgert

Nevertheless, the coach is looking forward to a good match due to the “healthy rivalry” between the two teams. The last time the two teams met in the Westphalia Cup in March last year, S04 won 3:0. Although it is a small district derby, Elgert remained pragmatic about the upcoming match.

“For me, every game is an important game,” explained the Schalke coach. “Sepp Herberger used to say that you have to give every game 100 percent and that will also be our task in this English week.”

After Borussia Dortmund’s U19s were knocked out of the Youth League play-offs against MSK Zilina, they took the frustration out of the league with a 7:1 win over Wuppertaler SV and a 4:1 victory over Fortuna Köln. With 51 goals scored, coach Mike Tullberg’s team is by far the most prolific in the league. In addition, BVB has the safest defense with only nine goals conceded.

“BVB certainly have completely different options to us, but I don’t want to hold that against them. They’re doing a good job,” said Elgert. More information about Schalke’s victory can be found here