A struggling Schalke 04 welcome ninth-placed Union Berlin at the Veltins Arena in Sunday's Bundesliga fixture.
The home side's torrid start to the season can be summed up by the 4-0 hammering they suffered at RB Leipzig in their previous outing, whilst Union trounced Mainz by the same scoreline at home.
Match preview
© Reuters
Despite finishing in a respectable 12th place last season, Schalke have only managed to win a single league game in 2020.
Losing Weston McKennie to Juventus and goalkeeper Alexander Nubel to Bayern Munich only appears to have increased their struggles this season, having lost all three of their opening matches.
Die Knappen approach this fixture sitting 18th in the Bundesliga, having scored the joint fewest goals (1) and conceded the most (15), with eight of those coming in their opening day loss against Bayern.
Union in contrast managed to grab their first win of the season against Mainz coming off the back of a hard-earned draw at Borussia Monchengladbach beforehand.
Still, the two sides finished 12th and 11th respectively last season and it is likely to be a closely-fought contest again despite Schalke's poor form.
© Reuters
Union ranked 16th in the league for away matches last season, their four away wins out of a possible 17 displaying a clear weakness in the side.
Whilst the victory over Mainz may have given Union confidence, Mainz are a side that has yet to secure any points this season, meaning the win may have said more about the opposition than Urs Fischer's side.
Schalke, who beat Paderborn 5-1 in last week's friendly, will be boosted by the fact that Union are without their top goalscorer from last season Sebastian Andersson, who joined FC Koln in the summer.
Schalke boss Manuel Baum will be hoping his side can repeat the 2-1 victory from the corresponding fixture last season, knowing that Union's attacking style will allow the home side opportunities to score.
Schalke 04 Bundesliga form: LLL
Schalke 04 form (all competitions): LLL
Union Berlin Bundesliga form: LDW
Union Berlin form (all competitions): WLDW
Team News
© Reuters
Moroccan midfielder Amine Harit is set to miss out again for Schalke after testing positive for coronavirus.
Defender Ozan Kabak is available for selection, having served the suspension he picked up against Werder Bremen on matchday two.
Meanwhile, Mark Uth will be looking to continue his goalscoring form following a spectacular hat-trick against Paderborn.
For Union, Christian Gentner is out with a calf injury whilst Anthony Ujah's knee problem rules him out.
Schalke 04 possible starting lineup:
Fahrmann; Kabak, Sane, Nastasic; Schopf, Bentaleb, Mascarell, Serdar, Oczipka; Uth, Paciencia
Union Berlin possible starting lineup:
Luthe; Friedrich, Schlotterbeck, Knoche, Trimmel, Lenz; Promel, Andrich; Kruse, Ingvartsen, Becker
We say: Schalke 04 1-1 Union Berlin
Schalke's lacklustre form this calendar year means that they are already early candidates for relegation this season.
However, even without the famous crowd present to create a hostile atmosphere for the visitors, previous meetings between the two and with Union's away struggles mean that this is likely to be an evenly-matched contest.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a double chance bet on a home win or an away win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home/Away:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Union Berlin win with a probability of 38.7%. A win for Schalke 04 had a probability of 35.9% and a draw had a probability of 25.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Union Berlin win was 0-1 with a probability of 8.85%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.51%) and 0-2 (6.27%). The likeliest Schalke 04 win was 1-0 (8.46%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.99%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 12% likelihood.
