Bayer Leverkusen vs Schalke 04 preview - Di Matteo looking for win hat-trick
Posted Friday, October 24, 2014 by PA
Roberto Di Matteo is looking for a third win in a row since becoming coach of Schalke as he leaves the comfort of the Arena AufSchalke for the first time this Saturday.
The Royal Blues head to Bayer Leverkusen who, like they, won in the Champions League in midweek.
Indeed it was a perfect week in Europe for German clubs and Schalke are keen to build on their 4-3 win over Sporting Lisbon.
"We've won two games in a row now and the team are in great shape," said Di Matteo, who inherited a side which had drawn 1-1 with Maribor in the Champions League and lost to Hoffenheim in their two previous games.
"Even our morale levels are high. We want to come home this Saturday with a positive result."
Looking to prevent them is one of their own players, Kyriakos Papadopoulos.
The Greek defender has been loaned out to Bayer Leverkusen for the season and he says he will not be showing any mercy on his parent club.
"I'm fully focused on our own team and I hope that we win against Schalke," he said.
It was not those words which got Schalke's director of sport Horst Heldt's back up, but a statement he made in the aftermath of Jens Keller's dismissal in which he criticised the former Schalke coach for not giving him a chance.
Heldt has reminded Papadopoulos that while Keller may no longer be at the club, he is due to return to Gelsenkirchen in the summer and he should be careful about what he says during his year in Leverkusen.
"I think it would be advisable for any player to consider carefully what they say about their past," Heldt said.
"It would be important for us if Papadopoulos gets a regular game at Leverkusen.
"It was also his desire to move and we accepted that, but let's not forget that he's still got to come back and work again with many of the people he worked with before."
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