Schalke-Barcelona preview

By: Mike | March 31st, 2008

Man I feel like such a lazy bastard copying and pasting ~~everything~~ this.
Credits again go out to the Schalke website.

Mirko Slomka is keenly aware just how special Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final clash with Barcelona (kick-off: 2045 CET) is. “The sense of anticipation and excitement is palpable among everyone here”, the Schalke boss explained. “So no one needs any extra motivation. The players will go into the game full of enthusiasm and give it their best shot.” Slomka has prepared intensively for the visit of the 2006 European champions. “I was able to gauge Barcelona’s strengths for myself during the cup semi-final in Valencia, for example”, he said. Although Frank Rijkaard’s men slipped to a 3-2 defeat, “their class was there for all to see”. Slomka has identified the defensive midfield pairing of Xavi and Iniesta as key players alongside Barcelona’s exceptional strike force.
Full-backs Eric Abdidal and Gianluca Zambrotta, who operate almost as wingers whenever the Catalans attack, are others meriting close attention. “Barcelona play almost in the style of a handball team”, he continued. A further weapon in Barcelona’s armoury is their shooting power. In the current Champions League campaign they have racked up 68 shots on goal, more than any other team. Nevertheless, the “two faces” of Barcelona have not escaped Slomka’s attention. “They’re having an outstanding season in Europe and are unbeaten so far having picked up six wins and two draws. But in the league and the Spanish cup they have only won one of their last six and have conceded 15 goals”, said the Schalke boss, who hopes his team will be able to exploit this.
Barcelona’s recent results are not the only reason why the Royal Blues feel they are in with a chance at the VELTINS Arena. “Determination, strength in the tackle, pace and drive going forward have been features of our play in the Bundesliga just recently”, said Slomka. “And these are the things we’ll be hoping to reproduce against Barcelona.” The fact that the Royal Blues have not been scoring as freely as in the first half of the season was regrettable, he said, but there was also a positive aspect to this: “We played some good football before Christmas but we didn’t pick up enough points. At the moment we are proving more effective.”
It is a trend the Schalke boss hopes will continue against Barcelona. “Our aim is to keep a clean sheet because at the end of the day that is what saw us through to the quarter-final against Porto. With our fantastic fans behind us I’m sure we can do it again”, he added. In squad terms nothing has changed since the scoreless draw in Karlsruhe on Saturday. Gustavo Varela (thyroid dysfunction), Zlatan Bajramovic (toe), Markus Heppke (shoulder), Ivan Rakitic (ankle) and Ze Roberto (muscle strain) remain on the injured list, though Albert Streit did resume jogging training on Sunday after suffering from thigh trouble. “Unfortunately the game has come too early for him”, explained Slomka. The VELTINS Arena will host a sell-out 53,951 crowd. Premiere are showing the game live, and there will also be a live ticker on schalke04.de.

Injuries: Varela, Bajramovic, Heppke, Rakitic and Ze Roberto.
Barca Injuries: Ronaldinho, Deco, Lionel Messi, Santi Ezquerro and Víctor Sánchez. Eto’o will undergo a fitness test so he might be out, lets hope that he misses the game.

Squads:
Schalke: TBA
Barcelona: Valdés, Pinto, Milito, Márquez, Puyol, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Eto’o, Zambrotta, Henry, Edmílson, Sylvinho, Giovani, Thuram, Abidal, Touré, Bojan.

Obviously any team that has to play Barça, has to worry about the whole team and not just one area. I think this game will be won in the midfield. Then again, isn’t every game won there?!? Barça are going through a bit of a ruff patch. So maybe if we can score one on them early, we can come away with the big 3 points. We also cannot let them get that all important away goal. But thats obvious right?

Prediction: It’s either going to be 1-0, 1-1 or 0-1. I just do not see either team scoring more than one goal.

Streams: Here

Im sorry for the rather crappy analysis, if you want to call it that. I just have not been able to watch either team lately. Thats not to say that I did not want to(well, Schalke anyways), but just was not physically able.