Schalke 04 vs Real Madrid - Competition: UEFA Champions League
Schalke 04 are currently fourth in the Bundesliga after Saturday night's
underwhelming 1-0 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt. They finished 2nd in
their UCL group. They lost two of their six group games, including a 5-0
home thrashing by Chelsea and were forced to win their final match at
Maribor as well as see Sporting Lisbon lose to group winner Chelsea FC.
They conceded 14 goals over six games, finishing with a minus-5 goal
differential.
Di Matteo will be without three key players as Julian Draxler, Leon
Goretzka and Jefferson Farfan. Furthermore, Ralf Fahrmann, Sead
Kolasinac and Chinedu Obasi are all sidelined and will also miss out
here.
Real Madrid team defeated Deportivo 2-0 at the weekend and so they have won 5 of their 6 matches but their only loss was a heavy 4-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid in the league the only time that they have not won in their last six games.
The Blancos will be missing two stars James Rodriguez and Luca Modric. Sergio Ramos, Fabio Coentrao and Sami Khedira are all out of contention too. Pepe returns to the starting line-up as well as Asier Illaramendi, who is likely to start the match.
Last year Schalke 04 was literally destroyed at the Arena AufSchalke as Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale all grabbed braces in a 6-1 win before beating Schalke 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu. FC Schalke 04 have won only two of their last 15 encounters against Spanish opponents, suffering eight defeats.
Probable lineups:
Schalke 04: Wellenreuther (Giefer) – Howedes, Matip, Nastasic – Uchida, Fuchs – Kirchhoff – Hoger, Boateng – Choupo-Moting – Huntelaar.
Real Madrid: Casillas – Carvajal, Varane, Pepe, Marcelo – Illarramendi, T. Kroos – Bale, Isco, C. Ronaldo – Benzema.
Match date: Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Kick Off Time: 19:45 GMT
Venue: Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Kick Off Time: 19:45 GMT
Venue: Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
