Sporting Lisbon vs Schalke 04 preview - Schalke still improving - Di Matteo

Posted Wednesday, November 05, 2014 by PA

Roberto Di Matteo believes Schalke have learned a valuable lesson ahead of what he expects to be an emotionally charged Champions League meeting with Sporting Lisbon.

The Bundesliga club surrendered a two-goal lead when hosting Sporting at the Veltins-Arena and only just managed to eke out a 4-3 victory thanks to Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting's late penalty.

The spot-kick was awarded in dubious fashion, however, with referee Sergey Karasev controversially claiming Jonathan Silva had handled the ball in Sporting's box.

Di Matteo expects a backlash in Lisbon - especially considering Sporting lost an appeal to UEFA against the result - but feels his Schalke side are well equipped to ignore any distractions.

"We could see in the first game how good Sporting can be and, especially when it comes to technique, they are a very strong team," the former Chelsea boss told schalke04.de.

"But we have also noticed that Lisbon have some defensive weaknesses.

"We should have controlled the game better with a 3-1 lead.

"But two weeks have passed since our first meeting and we've developed further, making steps to improve our game."

Referring to the spot-kick award that saw Choupo-Moting settle a frenetic game in the German side's favour, Di Matteo added: "Unfortunately these things happen in football.

"Schalke - and myself at previous clubs - have experienced such events in the past. I expect a heated atmosphere in the stadium.

"But we must focus on our own performance, on our own targets. The players are showing great desire to win."

Attacking midfielder Julian Draxler could not travel to Portugal for the Group G match having suffered a hamstring injury that will rule him out of action until the new year.

Kevin-Prince Boateng is in line to replace him should he shrug off an ankle injury before Wednesday.

Di Matteo said: "The loss hurts us because Julian is a very important player for us."

Sidney Sam, Benedikt Howedes and Joel Matip are also sidelined through injury.

Victory for Schalke, coupled with a home win for Di Matteo's old club Chelsea against Maribor, would more or less guarantee the Royal Blues progression to the knockout stages.

Sporting, however, are facing an early exit after taking only one point from their opening three games.

And despite the frustration caused by recent events in Germany, defensive midfielder William Carvalho pointed to the Lions' failure to beat Maribor when identifying what has gone wrong thus far.

"Sporting have always been a club with lofty ambitions who fight for every prize," he told sporting.pt.

"The match against Maribor (1-1 draw) was very unfair because we dominated from start to finish and, because of one error, conceded a goal right at the end.

"You will pay dearly for every mistake you make.

"But we have a motto which involves taking each game as it comes and we still want to get through this group stage."