In the Bundesliga, Paderborn will play hosts to Schalke at the Benteler-Arena on Wednesday evening as both sides are looking to regain a little bit of form before the winter break.
After a slow start to their Bundesliga campaign, Schalke are back in the hunt for another Champions League spot as they currently sit in 6th place and a victory could see them push as high as third place depending on the results from other matches. Roberto Di Matteo's side worked hard in their last match, but the final third was lacking and as a result dropped all three points against a very good Köln squad. They are coming up against Paderborn, a side who are recently promoted, have been out of form and the visitors should be able to get a couple of goals past Lukas Kruse.
"We never backed down, even after we were two goals behind. We gave everything until the final whistle but unfortunately it wasn’t enough... We want to collect as many points as possible in the remaining two games before the winter break,” said Schalke head coach di Matteo on his sides last match and looking forward to the remaining matches before the winter break.
As stated above, Paderborn are slipping down the standings after they got off to a fantastic start to their season. Unfortunately, they have hit a bit of dry spell and have not picked up full points since their match on the 2nd of November, when they beat Hertha BSC by a score of 3-1 at home. Since then, however, they have dropped nine points in their last five matches. If the hosts get away with a point against a Schalke side who is slowly returning to form, then Paderborn should be pleased with their work.
Expect Schalke to have a majority of the possession throughout the 90 minutes with Paderborn happy to sit back and withstand constant pressure. The hosts will look to counter quickly up the pitch and try to score off of a set-piece. There will not be a lot of goals in this one, probably two at most in a low-scoring affair.