Schalke will open up a five-point lead and close in on its first
Bundesliga championship in 52 years if it beats second-place Bayern
Munich in the most hotly anticipated match of the season on
Saturday.
Felix Magath's teams have a record of finishing strongly and
it's hard to see Schalke squandering a five-point lead in the last
five games of the season if it were to succeed this weekend.
Bayern beat Schalke 1-0 in extra time in the German Cup
semifinal last week, but has lost its last two Bundesliga games.
"It's hard to imagine we could lose three in a row," Bayern
captain Mark van Bommel said.
Defender Daniel van Buyten added: "We react well when it's
our last chance."
Bayern could be distracted by its Champions League ambitions,
although the club has proclaimed the Bundesliga title its priority.
The match at Schalke comes between the two legs of the
Champions League quarterfinal against Manchester United. Bayern won
the home leg 2-1 on Tuesday and visits Manchester next week.
"That's going to be the key game of the season and we want to
win," Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.
Schalke now only has to concentrate on the Bundesliga, where
it beat third-place Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 last weekend. Bayern lost
at home 2-1 to Stuttgart, giving Schalke a two-point lead.
That was the first time Magath allowed himself to talk of the
title.
"If we win Saturday, we'll have a good chance," he said.
Magath said the important thing was to have learned the right
lessons from the German Cup loss.
"My team will have the right response," he said.
Magath could become the first Bundesliga coach to win the
championship with three different clubs - and all that within six
seasons.
He won the national double with Bayern twice in a row, but
still got fired. He then joined Wolfsburg and led it to its first
championship in his second season that included a decisive 5-1
thrashing of Bayern.
Magath quit to move to Schalke this season and said bringing
back glory to Schalke was his "four-year plan."
Winning the championship in his first season would be
remarkable even by Magath's standards.
Bayern has meanwhile stepped up the mind games ahead of the
match.
The club asked the German Football League to make sure the
pitch at Schalke corresponds to the league standards. After the cup
game, Bayern complained loudly about the sorry state of the grass.
Bayern president Uli Hoeness even suggested that Magath may
have left the pitch in bad shape on purpose because it suits his
defensive tactics better than Bayern's attacking game.
The league has called Bayern's statements "populist," and
Magath has wondered sarcastically if Bayern is in charge of setting
pitch standards in the Bundesliga.
Bayern players have questioned Schalke's quality.
"They can't dictate a game. They only stay behind the ball.
They can't do anything else," captain Van Bommel said. "We play to
win, we can't play otherwise."
Schalke does have the tightest defense in the league with
only 22 goals conceded, but it also boasts the top scorer in Kevin
Kuranyi, with 17 goals.
Defender Marcelo Bordon declined to call the match decisive
for the title.
"Even if we win, we still have five games to get through
without damage," Bordon said.
Bayern is expected to have winger Arjen Robben back after a
calf injury.
Going into the 29th round, Schalke has 58 points, Bayern 56
and Leverkusen 53. Leverkusen has to win at Eintracht Frankfurt on
Saturday to keep its slim hopes alive, especially since it plays
Bayern in the following round.
Fourth-place Borussia Dortmund hosts fifth-place Werder
Bremen with both teams still hoping to clinch third spot and a
Champions League qualifying berth.
There are also key games involving teams from the bottom when
Freiburg hosts Bochum and Hertha Berlin travels to Cologne. Also
Saturday, Nuremberg hosts Mainz and Stuttgart plays Borussia
Moenchengladbach.
Easter Sunday, Wolfsburg hosts Hoffenheim and Hamburger SV
plays Hannover.
