It’s the Friday night game from the German Bundesliga featuring strugglers Schalke against newcomers St Pauli. For a side that was challenging for the title last season, it’s really bizarre to see Schalke being in the relegation zone right now. Head coach Felix Magath brought in a lot of talents over the summer, particularly in attack where they boosted themselves with the transfers of Huntelar and Raul, but still the team from Gelzenkirhen has seriously underachieved this season and if things continue this way, Magath will get sacked eventually.
However, it’s not all lost for Schalke as we are still in the beginning of the footballing season so if they grab all 3 points tonight, as we expect them to, and go on a good run they will lift themselves up in the league standings. Our Schalke v St Pauli prediction is for a home win and online bookies like bet365 offer some pretty decent odds at 1,70!
Coach Magath said the following regarding this fixture: “St Pauli are an awkward side who perform well away from home. They have a solid defense and are a threat on the break. St Pauli will make life difficult for us even though Gerald Asamoah won’t be playing. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to the opportunity of winning another Bundesliga home game with the team on Friday. If you look around the league it’s very clear that sometimes a win is all you need to start the ball rolling, as in the case of Bayern Munich, for example.”
Our Bundesliga pick for tonight is Schalke to beat St Pauli and we have a lot of reasons to believe this will happen. First of all, the hosts are the better team with players of higher quality such as Raul, Huntelar, Farfan, Rakitic, Jones, Jurado, Metzelder and Manuel Neuer between the posts. Another factor is that Schalke will playing at home in a sold-out stadium where they will be looking for their first win of the season.
Surprisingly enough, Schalke are yet to win at home in the Bundesliga this season, having lost 3 matches and drawn 2. This is their second home game in a row so it’s essential for them to get the full 3 points as they will be playing away in their next two fixtures. They lost in the last round against Bayer Leverkusen but could consider themselves unlucky on that occasion as they missed a lot of chances, including a header from Huntelar in the first half that bounced off the post. Furthermore, Schalke didn’t even score in their last two matches so they will enter the pitch fully motivated to find the back of the net this time.
Expected Line-ups:
Schalke: Neuer – Uchida, Höwedes, Metzelder, Schmitz – Jones, Rakitic – Farfan, Jurado – Raul, Huntelaar
St Pauli: Kessler – Lechner, Zambrano, Thorandt, Oczipka – Boll, M. Lehmann – Bartels, Hennings, M. Kruse – Ebbers
Schalke v St Pauli Prediction: Bet On Schalke to get their first win of the season at home against a not so good St Pauli side that’s totally beatable.
Schalke to Win @ 1,70
We got two really good picks from the NBA for tonight so make sure you check them out!
