Werder travels to Gelsenkirchen

Werder's visit Gelsenkirchen to face die Königsblauen has all the makings of a "do or die" match for both clubs early in the Rückrunde. To say both clubs are "disappointed" by their years so far is an incredible understatement as they are ninth and tenth in the Bundesliga table. This was compounded as last week the Green Whites opened the new season with a 2-1 loss to Arminia Bielefeld while Schalke 04 fell to Hannover 96 thus making both sides salivating at the thought of a victory.

Thomas Schaaf is once again without the services of Diego and Claudio Pizarro who are serving suspension but will have Naldo available. Daniel Jensen and Martin Harnik could feature in the opening eleven as they played well last week in substitution. To be successful on the weekend the attacking vision of Mesut Özil, Hugo Almeida, Markus Rosenberg and others, must be finished with accuracy as Schalke will not allow many offensive openings.

Like Werder, die Königsblauen know a loss is will likely to put an end to a Europa League opportunity or at least make it very unlikely. Fred Rutten's defensive minded side is most dangerous on the counter and its only time before Kevin Kurányi and Jefferson Farfán start to produce.

This has all the makings of an extremely tight match as both sides will not want to make a mistake, lest their season comes crumbling down.