Schalke 04 UEFA Cup match preview

Mark Hughes leads his Manchester City in a tough UEFA Cup match against Bundesliga's Schalke 04 at their home grounds, Veltins-Arena. The home side comes into the match knowing full-well that three points would see them through to the next round with seven points, long before heading off to the extremely long winter break in the Bundesliga.

Schalke manager Fred Rutten will be without the services of Albert Streit and Serbian international Mladen Krstajić while Man City has a heavy injury list for the match including Robinho, Pablo Zabaleta and Gelson Fernandes. In addition to this concern Mark Hughes must balance the demands of this match with the high-priority derby against Man Utd this weekend.

Sparky's comments, "Ideally we would like to get qualification in the bag as quickly as possible. If you pick up a point somewhere on your travels and win your home games then it is often good enough to get you through to the knockout stages", lends you to believe that City will likely play with a heartier defensive minded approach.

Schalke enters the match with a roster boastful of brilliant talent including an attacking trident of Kevin Kurányi, Jefferson Farfán and Turkish international Halil Altıntop. While they have been under-performing at this stage they have the ability score with a flourish and to not give a blade of grass up in defense.

I will report on the match as it concludes.