Borussia Mönchengladbach vs Schalke 04 Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 14, 2015 @ 03:40 pm

The standout game of the German Bundesliga in Round 10 features two inform sides as Schalke travel to ‘Gladbach. ‘Gladbach have won the last 4 Bundesliga games in a row whilst Schalke have won 5 out of the last 6 league matches. After losing 6 games in a row in all competitions, Andre Schubert has transformed the side since taking over and has steadied the ship at ‘Gladbach.

After securing Champions League football last year with a surprising 3^rd place finish behind Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg, ‘Gladbach couldn’t believe how results were going against them and were rock bottom from Round 1 to Round 5. A win over fellow strugglers Augsburg and Stuttgart gave them confidence before a resounding home win over Wolfsburg at the start of October got them firing on all cylinders. Their latest 5-1 thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt marks a stunning turnaround in results and Schubert has to take credit since taking over. The interim coach could well take the job on a permanent basis should this run of form continue.

Schalke have been on the end of just 2 defeats this season, both by the 3-0 score line but have bounced back both times with 2-1 victories and the latest came against Hertha BSC last weekend. A dramatic injury time winner from Max Meyer gave Schalke all 3 points against 10-men Hertha BSC and kept the gap to 4 points over 4^th placed Wolfsburg. Besides the defeat to Wolfsburg away from home, Schalke have been very effective travelling to other grounds having won 5 out of 5 and conceded 0 goals in the process. The 7x Bundesliga champions boast one of the youngster squads in the league and will be eager to impress against one of the better sides of the league. 

‘Gladbach boast a phenomenal record against Schalke over the years with just 6 defeats in 42 encounters at Borussia-Park. The away side in this fixture has won just twice in the past 16 meetings so Schalke will have their work cut out. Raffael scored his 2^nd and 3^rd goals of the season against Frankfurt and the Brazilian forward was rewarded with his unselfishness so far this season after taking 5 assists in 8 games. Schalke are notoriously slow starters but given the confidence flowing through the ‘Gladbach squad they can’t afford to let them go in front.

Granit Xhaka has recently joined the treatment table at ‘Gladbach in a growing list which already features Nico Schulz, Patrick Hermann and Martin Stranzl. The midfielder suffered the problem on international duty and is now set to miss the rest of October and the majority of November. Benedikt Howedes made his first start of the season after recovering from injury and the centre half scored in the 2-1 win over Hertha BSC. 

Borussia Monchengladbach

Stats: W-4 L-5 D-0

Recent Form - WWLWW

Schalke

Stats: W-6 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - WWWLW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Borussia Monchengladbach (4-4-2) – Sommer, Korb, Christensen, Dominguez, Wendt, Traore, Dahoud, Nordtveit, Raffael, Hahn.

Schalke (4-4-2) – Fahrmann, Riether, Howedes, Matip, Aogo, Sane, Goretzka, Geis, Meyer, Di Santo, Hunterlaar.

Injury List/Suspended Players

Borussia Monchengladbach – Xhaka (inj), Hermann (inj), Schulz (inj), Stranzl (inj)

Schalke – Uchida (inj), Hoger (inj), Santana (inj), Nastastic (inj).

League Positions