FC Schalke are aiming for their third win in a row, but the task against Fürth will be more difficult than against Osnabrück or Rostock. Here’s what the coach has to say before the game.

After the victories against VfL Osnabrück and Hansa Rostock, FC Schalke 04 will face Greuther Fürth in the 2nd Bundesliga on Friday (6:30 p.m.).

S04 coach Karel Geraerts will again have to do without a large number of players. As in Rostock, seven players are out with injuries: Dominick Drexler, Leo Greiml, Yusuf Kabadayi, Danny Latza, Marius Müller, Assan Ouedraogo and Ron Schallenberg.

The eighth player is striker Sebastian Polter, who had to undergo groin surgery.

The season is over for him, but the coach hopes that Polter will be back in four or five weeks. With another striker out, it won’t be any easier to score against Fürth. They conceded a goal against Magdeburg in the 90th minute, after keeping a clean sheet for over 500 minutes.

Geraerts: “We have to go out and play with confidence. We’re a good team, everyone can score goals. It won’t be easy to score, but we’ll take on the challenge.”

In general, he has great respect for the opponent: “Fürth have a very good team. We have to play well to win the game. But we’re focusing on ourselves, we believe in ourselves. It will be a completely different game to the ones against Osnabrück or Hansa Rostock. We’ve started well, we believe in ourselves.”

The coach is keeping his options open as to whether he will start the team that won in Rostock: “Never change a winning team” is a good quote, but you never know if something will change. In general, the Belgian is satisfied with the development of his team, because: “I see in every training session that the players are increasingly understanding my philosophy.”