Schalke 04 vs RB Leipzig

Veltins Arena is the venue as relegation-threatened Schalke 04 and top-four hopefuls RB Leipzig lock horns in a lopsided Bundesliga contest.

Schalke’s hopes of avoiding a swift return to Germany’s second tier took another massive blow upon the Bundesliga return in 2023 as Eintracht Frankfurt humbled them 3-0 at the weekend, leaving them pinned to the bottom of the standings. Stuck six points adrift of safety, the ‘Miners’ must relish a long-awaited home return, considering their only two Bundesliga victories this season have come at the Veltins Arena. Having suffered a staggering nine defeats in their last ten league outings (W1), Thomas Reis’ men face an uphill task of arresting an abysmal run of three consecutive top-flight H2H losses against Leipzig without scoring. Breaking the deadlock could be of the essence, considering Schalke’s last four home league fixtures have seen the winner keep a clean sheet (W1, L3).

On the other hand, RB Leipzig hauled back a 1-0 halftime deficit to hold perennial German champions Bayern Munich to a morale-boosting 1-1 home draw in their 2023 Bundesliga opener, whittling down a gap on fourth-placed Freiburg to one point. Despite falling down from an eye-catching four-match winning league streak, you’d need to go back to mid-September for Leipzig’s last Bundesliga defeat. Indeed, Marco Rose’s men head into proceedings unbeaten in nine consecutive league games (W6, D3), netting 2+ goals seven times during that sequence. However, despite going unbeaten on their last four top-flight travels (W2, D2), ‘Die Roten Bullen’ have returned only 31% of their Bundesliga points this season away from home (9/29).