An very important match will be played in
Champions League group B on Wednesday evening. For Schalke the result against Benfica will be trend-setting for the rest of the season.
A crushing season had
Schalke 04 so far with only four points out of the first six Bundesliga matches. Not totally surprising, considered that coach Magath replaced big parts of the team and the complete defence before the season. There still is high quality in the squad, with Huntelaar, Jurado, Metzelder and Raul four players recently played for Real Madrid. Lately the insecure defence seemed stable with the central defenders Metzelder and Höwedes, but Höwedes will miss the Benfica match due to a suspension.
With only one win out of the first four matches the start into the season wasn't very successful for
Benfica Lisboa either. But recently the strong technical team beat Sporting Lisboa 2:0 at home and won 1:0 at Madeira last Saturday. With 40 million Euros the Portuguese record champion has the highest budget of its club history, but even when they won the first Champions League match 2:0 at home against Hapoel Tel Aviv, so far not much was seen of the "year of magic" announced by coach Jorge Jesus.
FC Schalke 04 vs Benfica Lisboa Champions League - group B: 2nd round
Date: 29 September 2010 - 20:45 CET
Stadium: Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy)
Schalke: Keeper: Neuer
Defenders: Uchida, Plestan, Metzelder, Schmitz
Midfielders: Matip, Jones, Rakitic, Jurado
Forwards: Raul, Huntelaar
Coach: Magath
Injured: Hoogland, Pander, Kenia
Booked: Höwedes
Benfica: Keeper: Roberto
Defenders: Maxi Pereira, Luisao, Luiz, Peixoto
Midfielders: Javi Garcia, Martins, Coentrao, Aimar
Forwards: Saviola, Cardozo
Coach: Jorge Jesus
Injured: -
Booked: -
Benfica couldn't win one of their 17 matches in Germany yet.
No matches so far
Not much speaks in favour of Schalke at the moment, but I suppose that the change from Bundesliga to Champions League will affect them positive. 54.000 supporters will push Schalke to a win.
The best odds on Schalke to win you can find at
