Gelsenkirchen (dpa) – sports director Rouven Schröder asked the professionals at FC Schalke 04 to keep a cool head before the exciting promotion fight showdown in the 2nd Bundesliga.
Despite the leader’s good starting position before the top game on Saturday (8.30 p.m.) against fifth-placed FC St. Pauli and the great enthusiasm of the fans, “nothing has been achieved yet”: “Allow euphoria from the outside. You can’t stop it anyway. But internally remain totally calm and objective,” Schröder demanded.
Ideally, the Revierclub (59 points) can already make the promotion perfect on the second to last match day. If one of the two points worse pursuers from Darmstadt (in Düsseldorf) and Bremen (in Aue) misses a win, the Bundesliga return would be perfect if they beat St. Pauli themselves.
A breakfast shared by Schalke on Wednesday should help to get in the mood for the game. “The entire squad is looking forward to the last two games. That’s what we all want. We want to be there to the end, to write something on the flag,” commented coach Mike Büskens.
The recently injured Thomas Ouwejan, Marius Bülter and Malick Thiaw returned to training in time for the season finale. Although the opponent from Hamburg recently reported various corona cases, Schröder expects a duel on an equal footing: “Nobody should believe that a team will come on Saturday that wants to congratulate us on something. It won’t be an emergency team.” Büskens sees it similarly: “This is a really good team that knows: If they want to get involved in the promotion race, they have to win.”