Finishing a perfect week against Schalke 04

Holger Stanislawski's team travel to Schalke in high spirits after two victories in their last two games. This Saturday the objective is clear: to maintain that good run. But while Hoffenheim will be confident going into the game, so will their opponents. Schalke have won their last three games in all competitions, a fact which has given Stanislawski reason to expect a ‘highly entertaining' game. “If we want to continue this run, we can't make any mistakes”, said the manager.

Rotation is possible

Just as he made changes to his side on Tuesday night, Stanislawki has admitted that he will be rotating his team for the Schalke game. Sebastian Rudy, Vedad Ibisevic, Isaac Vorsah, Roberto Firmino and Gylf Sigurdsson were all on the bench or rested altogether for the cup game, but are expected to return to the side. “Every one of my players is good enough to play in the league games”, emphasised the manager. “But we'll play the eleven we think are best suited to the game, to the occasion and to our opponents – the team that we believe will give us the best chance of winning the game.” Regular goalkeeper Tom Starke missed the last two games because of a concussion suffered in training, but Stani confirmed he may return for the weekend. “Tom has trained twice with the first team this week, but we'll have to wait and see if he's ready.”

Schalke – efficiency over finesse

Opposing coach Huub Stevens also hast to decide who he will pick to play in goal on Saturday. Ralf Fährmann is currently injured, so Lars Unnerstall is in line to deputise for him, although Timo Hildebrand, recently signed as a free agent, also provides some competition. In their last fixture, Schalke made hard work of second division side Karlsruhe SC, overcoming their stubborn opponents by an unconvincing 2-0 scoreline. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Joel Matip scored the goals for Stevens' side, both of which came in the final ten minutes of the game. But despite the uninspiring performance in the cup, the Royal Blues have plenty of players capable of causing Hoffenheim problems. One such figure is Dutchman Huntelaar, who has a remarkable 19 goals in all competitions this season, and TSG's defence will surely have to keep a close eye on him.

Stats and Facts

This fixture has been a fruitful one for Hoffenheim of late. Since being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2008, they have have taken six points from a possible nine at the Veltins Arena. They lost 2-0 in 2009/10 but were 1-0 victors in this fixture last season, when they were coached by Marco Pezzaiuoli.

Match facts and statistics »