Schalke 04-FC Koln
Veltins Arena
Sunday, 14th February 2010 – kickoff 15:30

Schalke 04

Schalke 04 were really unfortunate last week and did not materialized most of the chances against the weak team of Freiburg, and were held to goalless draw.

In the midweek, however, they won against Osnabruck in the DFB Cup and advanced in the semis were they will face Bayern Munich.

The team plays good football at the moment, have a rock solid defense, they do not score that many goals but rarely concede as well. With just 15 goals conceded in 21 matches so far they are the team with the best defense in the Bundesliga.

Coach Magath will use the same team that faced Osnabruck on Wednesday with three attackers up front - Vicente Sanchez, Kevin Kuranyi and Jefferson Farfan.

There are no reports for suspended or injured players for this match.

FC Koln

FC Koln were also involved in Cup action where they have lost 2-0 against Augsburg but the team`s attention is more focused on the championship. Interesting is that even 3 players were shown a red card in that match including Lucas Podolski.

Last week they celebrated a great 3-3 draw against Hamburger which felt like a victory. The new coach Zvonimir Soldo has improved this squad during the past weeks and FC Koln now are 8 points above the relegation zone but still far from safe.

The team will play with Lucas Podolski as a striker and two offensive midfielders in Milivoje Novakovic and Maniche. After the great performance last week Zoran Tosic is also expected to be part of the starting line up.

The striker Kevin Pezzoni and midfielder Sebastian Freis will be at the bench.

The Betting Verdict

Schalke are very close to the top and just three points behind the leaders but after the slip up last week they need to start winning again.

FC Koln is a tricky opponent; they often show great performances like last week when they did not give up until the very last minute and earned a well deserved draw after being two goals down.

Schalke 04 have five wins and two draws in the last seven matches. On the other side FC Koln have improved a lot recently and they have surprised everyone with two away wins against Vfl Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt and the last week`s draw against Hamburger SV.

When playing at home ground in Gelsenkirchen Schalke 04 have a good record against FC Koln with 15 wins 13 draws and just 7 losses.

I think that this will be a very close duel because both sides have good defenses. However, Schalke 04 have more quality players in the squad and i expect them to win by one goal margin in a tight encounter.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Schalke 04-FC Koln 2-1

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Home win for Schalke 04