Schalke 04 welcome Valencia in the second leg of the teams’ Last 16 Champions League tie on Tuesday. It looks like that the two teams are evenly placed for qualification in the next round but Schalke will have the advantage of the away goal. This will be a very tight game and my pick here is the draw.
Schalke 04 have not had the best of seasons in the German Bundesliga and they are currently sitting in 10th place in the championship. The Miners recorded another defeat at the weekend, this time against Borussia Monchengladbach (2:1) and this means they will most probably not take part in any of the European competitions next year unless they win this year’s Champions League! Felix Magath will again rely on Raul upfront as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is still sidelined with an injury. Some boost for Schalke will be the fact that they reached the DFB Pokal final after winning at Bayern Munich a week ago (1:0). Schalke’s record in the last five games in all competitions is not very impressive (1-2-2) and they will hope for at least a draw on Tuesday.
Valencia, on the other hand, have been performing very well in the Primera Division and they currently sit in the 3rd place only behind Barcelona and Real Madrid. Unai Emery has been doing a great job at Los Che and he will hope to further credit the believe in him after progressing to the next stage of the Champions League. The Spaniards will definitely look to score at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday as this will be their chance to qualify. Moreover, they have won four of the last five games away from home, scoring at least two goals in the last three of them.
The two teams will definitely be very careful on Tuesday night as every goal might prove to be decisive so I would go for the draw.
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Tipster: George_S
Posted at: 07/03/2011 13:30
Odds: 3.2
Bookmaker: Bet365
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Schalke 04