Our prediction for this Bundesliga 2 match:
Ostseestadion will host Sunday’s football game between Hansa Rostock and Schalke 04, the two relegation-threatened teams. Hansa have been having their ups and downs of late, with the team beating Magdeburg, losing to St. Pauli, while sharing the spoils with Karlsruher. Alois Schwartz’s troops are eager to escape the danger zone, but this match will be anything but a walk in the park for the home side. Janik Bachmann is a major doubt after catching a cold, while all Patrick Nkoa, Nico Neidhart, and John-Patrick Strauss remain in the recovery room.
Die Knappen, on the other hand, quickly bounced back from a 5-3 loss to Fortuna Dusseldorf, with the team outplaying Osnabruck 4-0 in their last league match. Schalke, though, are not considered good travellers and we do not believe that they are capable of collecting more than one point from Sunday’s encounter. The likes of Drexler, Kabadayi, Latza, Ouedraogo, Muller, Maza, and Greiml are injured for the away team.
Highlighted Team (Schalke):
Schalke 04 are a professional football club founded in 1904. Die Knappen (The Miners) compete in German Bundesliga and they have won seven domestic titles. Schalke have clinched five German Cup trophies as well, while lifting the UEFA Cup title in 1997. The German club defeated Italian side Inter on penalties in the title game and that was the last time the final of the competition was played in a two-legged format.
Schalke 04 play their home matches at Veltins-Arena, the stadium that has been the home of the team since 2001. The capacity of Veltins-Arena is 62,271. It is well known that Borussia Dortmund are Schalke’s main rivals and the Ruhy neighbours face each other in the Revierderby.
The likes of Klaus Fichtel (477), Norbert Nigbur (355), Rolf Russmann (304), Klaus Fischer (295), Olaf Thon (295) and Herbert Lutkebohmert (286) are the players with most appearances for die Knappen. The colour of Schalke’s home kit is blue.