The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Royal-95-c40387 Blues will kick-off their Champions League season with a challenging trip to Greece as they look forward to make up for last year’s omission from the tournament.
Huub Stevens’ 2010 Bundesliga winners will take on Leonardo Jardim’s in Europe’s Premier cup competition on Tuesday, September 18, at Stadio Georgios Karaiskaki. Schalke finished an impressive third last season in the Bundesliga
after a disappointing 14th placed finish and Olympiakos won their domestic title in the Superleague http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Greece-c2908.
Olympiakos FC
The Greek outfit remains unbeaten in the domestic league this season and have an impressive record in their home games in European football. The Legend’s best campaign came in 1999 when they reached the quarters of the tournament
but were defeated by Juventus 3-2 on aggregate.
The Reds won their Superleague game over the weekend with a 2-1 victory against Giannina and will continue with the same team that featured in the win. Olympiakos will be favourites for the tie as they are playing in front their
home crowd and beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in Athens in last year’s edition of the Champions League.
FC Schalke
Die Knappen did not play in the Champions League last season as they could not qualify after finishing 14th in the league standings. This year the Bundesliga outfit gained automatic qualification after coming 3rd
in the rankings and will be looking forward to repeat their success of 2011 when they reached the semi-finals of the competition.
The away trip will be the Miners 150th game in European football and the German team won 77 of their overall matches. They have previously won the UEFA Cup in 1997 and the Intertoto Cup twice in two consecutive years.
The Gelsenkirchen side is yet to score in their group opener for four years now.
Schalke star defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos came through the home team’s youth product and signed for the Veltins Arena two years ago. He is also the youngest player to take part in Greece’s domestic league. Die Konigsblauen will
name the same team that won 2-0 versus Greuther Furth over the weekend.
Team News
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Giannis-Maniatis-c14846 and Vasilis Torosidis will be back in
the first team after being rested in the league game, because of the fatigue from the World Cup qualifiers.
On the other hand, Huub Stevens have no major injury concerns. Lars Unnerstall will keep his place as shot-stopper, skipper Benedikt Howedes, Papadopoulos, Joel Matip and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lewis-Holtby-c22175 will
play in the attacking role with the attack of Jefferson Farfan, Julian Draxler and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Klaas-Jan-Huntelaar-c21175.
Players to watch
Huntelaar will be a massive player for the German club as he won the golden boot in league last year and looks in fine form this season. The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Netherlands-c753 international scored 48 goals in 47 games for Schalke in all competitions
last season.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Rafik-Djebbour-c30428 will be the main man for the Greek outfit and has 23 goals in 34 appearances for the club. The Algerian international is a prolific scorer and will be looking to get his side an early lead.
Prediction
The mouth-watering clash will be a nail biting affair and both teams have an equal chance of registering a win. Bettor.com predicts a 2-1 victory for Olympiakos.
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