On Sunday, FC Schalke must travel to Hannover 96. Can the team end the away curse at the promotion candidates? What the coach says ahead of the game.
When FC Schalke 04 travel to Hannover 96 on Sunday (13:30), the Royal Blues will know exactly what to expect. Hansa Rostock can draw level with Schalke on points with a win on Friday against SV Wehen.
On Saturday, 1. FC Kaiserslautern play at HSV. Difficult, but certainly not impossible with the cup euphoria behind them. At the same time as the Royal Blues, Braunschweig play at Fortuna Düsseldorf on Sunday.
One thing is clear: difficult away games for Lautern, Braunschweig and Schalke. Especially as all teams have rarely traveled away from home and could take something with them. Especially Schalke, last in the away table.
After failing to win their last home game against KSC (0:0), the gap to the relegation places threatens to narrow again if Schalke don’t finally get their act together away from home.
S04 coach Karel Geraerts will still not be able to call on defensive stalwarts Ron Schallenberg and Brandon Soppy. This is annoying, as Hannover have only lost one game at home and the miners have mostly been out of sorts away from home, especially in defense.
How FC Schalke could play at Hannover 96
M. Müller – Brunner, Kalas, Kaminski, Murkin – Seguin – Kabadayi, Ouedraogo, Karaman, Ouwejan – Terodde
Missing: Baumgartl (sent to U23), Greiml (knee injury), Schallenberg (fiber tear), Soppy (muscular problems), Latza, Tempelmann (training backlog)
Kabadayi threatened with suspension
With regard to his personnel, the Belgian emphasized: “Kenan Karaman felt a little tired at the start of the week, but he is fit. Dominick Drexler had problems with his calf, the first impression wasn’t good, but he’s been back in training since Thursday. Danny Latza and Lino Tempelmann were able to complete parts of training. We hope that Soppy and Schallenberg will be able to train again next week.”
Assan Ouedraogo, who has another week in his bones, is much further ahead and is therefore a clear option for the starting eleven in Hannover. Geraerts: “He did well after coming on as a substitute against KSC. I’m happy that he’s back. He will certainly help us a lot in the next seven weeks.”
Schalke also need a lot of help at the moment, especially away from home. The coach explains with regard to the weakness away from home: “I’m trying to push the team, but I’m not going to redo everything because I like fixed structures. But little things can change. “