Germany Bundesliga 18/4/2009: Schalke 04 vs Energie Cottbus

Posted by Go Tipsters Admin On April - 18 - 2009

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Schalke

Schalke coaching trio Mike Buskens, Youri Mulder and Oliver Reck are hoping for a repeat of last season’s dominant display when they welcome Energie Cottbus to the Arena AufSchalke. They have won their first two games back on the bench, improving their overall record to seven wins and one draw while in charge, and now they are back in contention for one of the places that lead to Europe next season.

Cottbus

After a terrible losing run of five straight defeats, Cottbus finally got a crucial win this season in the game against Bielefeld, that kept their hopes of survival alive. Tonight they hope Kuranyi misfires as they seek to move out of the Bundesliga’s bottom three for only the second time this season since beating Werder Bremen 2-1 in February did Cottbus move out of the relegation zone.

Team News

Rafinha is back after suspension, while former captain Marcelo Bordon is likely to recover which means that Blues will field the strongest defense. Sanchez might be back to join Kuranyi-Farfan in front. Mladen Krstajic, Heiko Westermann, Christian Pander and Danny Latza will also play in defence. Grossmuller and Kenia are injured and will miss tonight’s match.

For Cottbus, Marco Kurth who has recovered from injury, as well as Emil Jula, so Energie will be much stronger in the midfield and have more cutting-edge in the attack. However, their starter Da Silva, Pavicevic, Sorensen and Rivic are out. Stanislav Angelov also unable to play because of suspension.

Prediction

Schalke won the first match in Cottbus 2:0 in spite of the fact that they were outnumbered during the whole second half. Tradition absolutely favours the Blues as they have never conceded a goal against Energie at home and they have never recorded a minimum win over this rival.