Leverkusen vs Schalke Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Nov 23, 2015 @ 06:54 pm

Leverkusen ended a run of 3 defeats on the bounce with a 3-1 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt thanks to goals from Hakan Calhanoglu and a brace from Javier Hernandez. It took ‘Chicharito’ to 6 league goals for the season and HE has carried the goal scoring burden for Leverkusen in the league with the usually prolific Stefan Kiessling struggling this season with just 1 Bundesliga goal to his name. However, it is now 4 games on the spin that Leverkusen have failed to keep a clean sheet and they still look vulnerable defensively which will be an area Schalke look to exploit on Sunday. The win against Eintracht Frankfurt stopped their slide down the table as they now find themselves in 6^th with the likes of Wolfsburg, Hertha Berlin and Borussia Monchengladbach all seizing on Leverkusen’s defeats to Koln and Wolfsburg.

Schalke are winless in 5 but have faced Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach in that run. They suffered a 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich most recently but were fortunate not to concede more as Munich caused riot at the Veltins-Arena. Schalke have an important game in the Europa League on Thursday against APOEL Nicosia where a win will not only provide them with a much needed confidence and morale boost but will also book their place in the knockout stages of the competition. Schalke sit just outside the Europa League places in 7^th and will be very cagey of dropping anymore points this calendar year with just 3 points separating them and 11^th placed Mainz. 

Goals have been on display in both sides recent league games. Leverkusen’s last 4 games in the Bundesliga has seen 3 goals or more on each occasion whilst Schalke has seen the same amount in 4 of their last 6 league games. Schalke have only failed to score once away from home in the league this campaign whilst Leverkusen have kept just one clean sheet at the BayArena in league matches this season. Leverkusen have edged the last two meetings by a 1-0 score line and have lost just 7 of the 31 meetings between these two at the BayArena.

The home side will still be without the services of Kyriakos Papadopoulous through suspension and Roberto Hilbert and Tin Jedvaj are also defenders missing for Leverkusen. Lars Bender is a major miss for Leverkusen and his presence in midfield is a loss. Schalke’s Johannes Geis is still paying the price for his awful tackle last month that resulted in a 5 match suspension.

Bayer Leverkusen

Stats: W-6 L-5 D-2

Recent Form – WLLLW

Schalke

Stats: W-6 L-5 D-2

Recent Form - LDDLL

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Bayer Leverkusen (4-2-3-1) – Leno, Wendell, Toprak, Tah, Donati, Kramer, Kampl, Calhanoglu, Mehmedi, Bellarabi, Hernandez

Schalke (4-5-1) – Fahrmann, Reither, Howedes, Matip, Aogo, Neustadter, Goretzka, Sane, Hojbjerg, Meyer, Hunterlaar

Injury List/Suspended Players

Bayer Leverkusen – Papadopoulous (sus), Bender (inj), Jedvaj (inj), Hilbert (inj)
Schalke – Geis (sus), Uchida (inj), Sam (inj), Nastastic (inj), Santana (inj)

League Positions