Schalke firing despite Huntelaar blow

11Mar 2013

Schalke continued their recent run of form with a derby win over Borussia Dortmund, but how will they cope against Galatasaray without top scorer Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, asks Ben Lyttleton...

Usually a team's performance will drop in the game before a big Champions League encounter, and improve after it. That's just one of the reasons why Schalke's 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, in the Ruhr derby, was such a surprise in Germany.

After all, Schalke take on Galatasaray in the second leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie in midweek, while BVB were coming off the back of a comprehensive 3-0 European win over Shakhtar Donetsk.

There were other reasons: Dortmund had won the last two league derby matches in Gelsenkirchen and were bidding for a third straight win for the first time in 50 years, while the reigning champions' post-winter form, and the fact that Schalke, although unbeaten in four, had not so long ago been stuck in one-win-in-13 three month slump.

But everything - well, almost everything - went right for Schalke on the day. It started with captain Benedikt Howedes signing a contract extension, which considering he had been linked to Bayern Munich was a huge boost for the club.

Julian Draxler, playing his 100th competitive game (and still only 19) opened the scoring after good work from Atsuto Utsida and Jefferson Farfan down the left, and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar doubled the lead before the break. Once again Schalke proved their threat on the counter-attack: according to Bloomberg Sports, no team in the Bundesliga has scored more goals on the break than Scahkle.

When Dortmund brought on Marco Reus and Nuri Sahin in the second half, Dortmund threatened and reduced the deficit through Robert Lewandowski, who scored for a seventh consecutive league game (a club record but he still has same way to go: Lionel Messi this weekend just made it 17 in a row).

Schalke held on for the win, thanks to a fantastic save by Timo Hildebrand from a Lewandowski effort. It was a third straight win which moved them into fourth place, six points behind Bayer Leverkusen, who lost at Mainz and face Bayern Munich next. Leverkusen are 1.15 to finish top in the Market Without Bayern and Dortmund, with Schalke 2.5.

"You only have to look at the table to see our return to form, but we mustn't stop there," Draxler told the Bundesliga website after the game. "We've still got lots of work ahead of us this season. It's important that we take the same level of belief into the game against Galatasaray. If we play like we did against BVB, we've got a good chance to make the next round of the Champions League. I'm sure we can swing it in our favour."

There was one sour note for Schalke, though: a knee ligament injury to Huntelaar which, while not season-ending, will definitely rule him out of Tuesday's European tie against the Turkish champions. Coach Jens Keller has a decision to make: to field Pukki, his out-of-form replacement, or repeat the striker-less formation he used in a 2-2 draw against Mainz three weeks ago. Schalke are 1.41 favourites to qualify for the quarter-final, with Galatasaray 3.2.

With Jermaine Jones, a scorer in Istanbul, also out suspended, Schalke's task will be a tough one, but winning three consecutive league games has improved their confidence. Schalke have timed their return to form to perfection: can it last a few more days?