Stuttgart vs Schalke Prediction - The Noose Is Growing Tighter For Stuttgart

Next Sunday, Schalke 04 will travel to Baden-Württemberg to face Stuttgart at the Mercedes-Benz Arena for round 31 of the Bundesliga on what will be a very important match for both sides for different reasons.

The home side - Stuttgart - are having another season to forget. Die Roten are on the 15th place of the league table with the relegation axe closing in on their necks. Stuttgart are only one point above the relegation zone and they cannot stumble again, otherwise even Eintracht Braunschweig, who are at the bottom of the table, might reach them.

The glory days of Stuttgart are buried in what seems to be a distant past and this season the team is clearly going through a negative moment. Back in December, Die Roten embarked on an unbelievable row of eight consecutive defeats that only ended at the beginning of March. Huub Stevens’ side has somehow managed to bounce back and they are currently on a two-match undefeated streak .

Last weekend, Stuttgart grabbed an important draw against Borussia Moenchengladbach and two weeks ago they defeated Freiburg at home. Next Sunday’s match against Schalke 04 will certainly not be an easy one, but Stuttgart cannot afford another slip up at this stage of the competition, with just four matches until the end.

For next Sunday’s match, Huub Stevens will probably not be able to count on the midfielders Patrick Funk, Marco Rojas, and Sercan Sararer, all of them still recovering from their respective injuries.

Schalke 04, on the other hand, are enjoying a very good period at Bundesliga. Die Knappen are on a seven-match undefeated row that started after being hammered both by Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. In fact, the team has only lost two of their last seventeen matches and have managed to put up some very consistent performances lately.

Schalke 04 are on the 3rd place of table, right behind their neighbours and rivals of Borussia Dortmund and seven points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, who are at the 4th place.

For next Sunday’s match, the team’s head coach Jens Keller is still not certain if he will be able to count on the Austrian defender Christian Fuchs, on the Japanese wing back Atsuto Uchida, on the team’s captain Benedikt Höwedes, and on the German midfielder Christian Clemens, all sidelined due to injury.

When both sides met at Gelsenkirchen back in November, Schalke smashed Stuttgart 3-0 with two goals from Farfán and one from Jermaine Jones. Due to the importance of next Sunday’s match, history might not repeat itself and Stuttgart will certainly do everything within their grasp to claim the match for themselves.

Stuttgart

Stats: W-7 L-16 D-7

Recent Form - WLLWE

Schalke 04

Stats: W-17 L-6 D-7

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Possible Line-ups

Stuttgart (4-2-3-1) – Ulreich - Schwaab - Rüdiger - Niedermeier - Boka - Gruezo - Gentner - Didavi - Traoré - Harnik - Werner

Schalke 04 (4-2-3-1) –  Fährmann - Hoogland - Ayan - Matip - Kolasinac - Neustäder - Boateng - Draxler - Meyer - Goretzka - Huntelaar

Prediction: Stuttgart 1 Schalke 1