Relegation summit – Schalke 04 against Hertha BSC in the live ticker
“Emotional game, heated atmosphere” – Hertha meets Schalke in the relegation peak
Hertha coach Sandro Schwarz is looking forward to the relegation peak at bottom side Schalke 04 on Friday with “anticipation”. In the previous year, Hertha had only prevented the fall from league one in the relegation against Hamburger SV.
At the start of the 28th matchday of the Bundesliga on Friday evening there will be a decisive game in the relegation battle. The 18th Schalke 04 meets the 17th Hertha BSC. Here you will find all the facts about the game and the game in the live ticker.
The facts about the game
Schalke can leave the direct relegation places for the first time in 6 months: On Friday evening, for the third time in this Bundesliga season, there will be the ultimate duel in the bottom of the table against the penultimate; before that it was the case on matchday 10 in Stuttgart against Bochum (4:1) and on matchday 23 in Bochum against Schalke (0:2). The winner jumps to the relegation rank at least for one night, at least Schalke hasn’t been there for a long time – this was the case after the 9th matchday, more than half a year ago.
18th place can also inspire: After Schalke had remained unbeaten in the first eight games of the second half of the season (2 wins, 6 draws), the Royal Blues recently suffered two defeats in a row (0:3 against Leverkusen, 0:2 at 1899 Hoffenheim). After all: As bottom of the table, Schalke have not lost any of their last six Bundesliga games (18th to 23rd matchday). In general, the tail lights lost only one of the ten games in the second half of the season (Stuttgart at Union, also 5 wins and 4 draws).
You take him, I don’t want him: FC Schalke 04 and Hertha BSC generally prefer to let their opponents have the ball and are among the teams with the lowest percentages of the game. In the first half of the season, the Berliners had more possession than in any other Bundesliga game this season. It wasn’t to their disadvantage, thanks to Wilfried Kanga’s late goal (88′) in Sandro Schwarz’ team celebrated a 2-1 win.
Successful counterplay: Due to the usually very low ball possession, the game of both clubs is designed for counterattacks, and with success: Both teams are among the better teams in this category with five counterattacks each (Bundesliga average is four counterattacks), among other things, the Hertha scored the 2-1 winner against Schalke (11th matchday) after a counterattack. However, the switching game only worked well in one direction: Eight (Schalke) and six (Hertha) counter goals conceded are also quite a lot in the Bundesliga comparison.
Berlin winning streak: Schalke is overall ahead of Hertha in the Bundesliga duel (35 wins, 13 draws, 27 defeats), in this millennium the Royal Blues have even won against any other club in the Bundesliga as often as against the capital club (21 times ). However, the last 3 matches went to Hertha – there had only been so many consecutive Berlin Bundesliga victories against Schalke from 1969 to 1971 (at that time even 4).