Schalke vs Werder Bremen: Preview and Prediction

Schalke vs Werder Bremen
German Bundesliga 2016/17
Date: Saturday, 5th November 2016,
Kick-Off at 16:30 UK
Venue: Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen.

Schalke earned a massive result on matchday 9 when they hold arch rivals Borussia Dortmund to a goal-less draw in the Revierderby away from home. This is a key result for the Royal Blues from Gelsenkirchen in an attempt to make amends for the poor start to the season.

Markus Weinzierl was under tremendous pressure after Schalke suffered defeats in each of their first 5 league games. Now the lady luck starts to shine on him and his team are unbeaten in the last four Bundesliga games. The picked up comfortable wins in their 2 home fixtures in the league – 4-0 against Monchengladbach and 3-0 against Mainz. While they were held to draws in two away games. If you look at other competitions as well, Schalke are unbeaten in the last 8, with 6 wins and 2 draws. But this is nothing but a brilliant turnaround of form.

Werder Bremen on the other hand had a similar start like that of Schalke. They lost the first four matches of the season and shows signs of revival when they picked up 2 wins and a draw from the next 3. However they are back to bare bones again after suffering defeats in the last two.

They visitors are a side under plenty of pressure as they are agonizingly close to the relegation zone. They are currently 15th in the standings and are separated from the drop zone by virtue of 1 point. To make things worse, they will be without 7 players in the trip to trip to Gelsenkirchen.

Schalke vs Werder Bremen: Head-to-Head Stats

The latest meeting between the two sides was at Gelsenkirchen on January this year and Bremen earned a 3-1 away win on that occasion. At the same time, Schalke won the fixture at Bremen by a 3-0 margin.

Werder Bremen haven’t lost in the last two trips to Gelsenkirchen. And their 3-1 away win last season was the first win in 12 Bundesliga meetings with Schalke. While Schalke have won in all of the previous four meetings.

Schalke vs Werder Bremen: Prediction

Due to the poor start to the season, Schalke have a plenty of ground to cover to make it to the top half of the table. However, they have transformed into a very reliable team in Bundesliga. While Bremen are coming on the back of a poor run and is marred by injuries to several key players. The visitors and expected to struggle and Schalke could extend their winning streak at home to 5 in a row.

At the same time, Schalke have kept clean sheets in 5 of their last 8 matches in all competitions. But Werder Bremen are a side that has consistently scored in every games since the matchday 1 defeat to Bayern Munich. They are an adventurous side but pretty poor at the back. As a result this could see over 2.5 goals and a 3-1 score-line at full-times seems very possible.