The FC Schalke 04 U19s have a highlight match coming up. Royal Blue will face SC Freiburg in the DFB Cup for juniors.

This match has already formed the final of the DFB Cup for juniors once, now it’s the semi-final: FC Schalke 04 U19s will host SC Freiburg at the Parkstadion on Saturday (11 a.m., RS live ticker).

At stake is a place in the final in Berlin. Schalke had already made it there last year, but then narrowly failed to do so against 1. FC Köln. Their opponents from Breisgau are the record winners of the competition with six titles.

And for S04 coach Norbert Elgert, they are “currently one of the strongest German teams”, as he emphasized in the club’s media. The SCF talents do not currently play in the Bundesliga like Schalke, but in the second-tier Oberliga. However, they are still without a point after 15 games and have scored 63-6 goals. Freiburg have not conceded a single goal in the DFB Cup.

“The majority of the players are from the older generation, who regularly play in the third division,” says Elgert. “It’s the Final Four, so each of the four teams is strong. We’ll put everything we’ve got into it. The league game against Aachen last weekend (5:0 win, editor’s note) did us good and gave us confidence once again. “

However, the Royal Blues will have to do without several players in the cup. Niklas Barthel, Philip Buczkowski, Berkay Karaca, Mika Khadr and Johannes Siebeking will all be missing for Elgert’s team on Saturday. “We’re badly shaken in terms of personnel, but we’re certainly not going to use that as an excuse,” said the 67-year-old coach. “We have two more training sessions before the game and will look for solutions to ensure we still make it to the final.”

Incidentally, the previous final match between the two teams ended in defeat for Schalke. Ten years ago, S04 lost 6:7 on penalties. However, they also met in a semi-final in 2005 – and that ended with a 5:3 victory on penalties in favor of the eventual cup winners from Gelsenkirchen