Bayer Leverkusen winger Karim Bellarabi. (Photo : Getty Images)
A high-profile matchup between contending squads FC Schalke 04 (13-11-6, 45 points) and Bayer 04 Leverkusen (15-9-6, 51 points) is set to be held at the Veltins Arena this Saturday, April 23rd as the 2015-2016 Bundesliga season slowly comes down to a close.
Seventh-placed Schalke is quite on a downward slide at the moment, being on a three-game winless run. They have also not found a win in four of their last six outings, which have temporarily settled them for the last spot of the Europa League qualification berths.
Their last match was a 0-3 demolition in the hands of current league leaders Bayern Munich, who are looking invincible and ready to capture their fourth consecutive Meisterschale, at the Allianz Arena last Saturday, as reported by BBC Sport.
Bayern's Polish forward Robert Lewandowski scored two goals at the 54th and 65th minutes while Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal added another one at the 73rd to complete the Bavarian's three-goal haul against head coach André Breitenreiter's squad.
With the loss, Die Knappen lost the opportunity of overtaking Borussia Monchengladbach and Mainz in the overall standings as the three clubs are now tied on points at the fifth, sixth, and seventh spots of the league table with all of them losing their matchday 30 games last week.
Meanwhile, Bayer Leverkusen passed over Hertha Berlin for the third spot in the overall standings following an impressive 3-0 thrashing of bottom three club Eintracht Frankfurt at their home field of BayArena last Saturday, as per SkySports.
Three different midfielders of head coach Roger Schmidt's team netted a goal each very late in the match, namely Slovenian Kevin Kampl, German Julian Brandt, and German Karim Bellarabi at the 70th, 76th, and 90th minutes respectively, to propel their team to its fourth straight win and fifth consecutive unbeaten performance.
With Leverkusen now at third place and two points above Hertha in the league table, they temporarily hold a direct qualifying spot to the group stage of the Champions League next season as the top three teams at the end of the season will claim such advantage.
The predicted result is a 2-0 victory for Bayer Leverkusen.
Schalke starting lineup (3-4-3 formation): Fahrmann; Riether, Neustadter, Matip; Caicara, Hojbjerg, Geis, Aogo; Sane, Huntelaar, Choupo-Moting
Bayer Leverkusen starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Leno; Jedvaj, Tah, Kramer, Henrichs; Yurchenko, Aranguiz; Bellarabi, Calhanoglu, Brandt; Hernandez
