Domenico Tedesco is set to lose his job on Saturday unless his Schalke team can muster a victory over Red Bull Leipzig.
The Gelsenkirchen club’s turbulent season hit a new nadir on Tuesday when they were used to wipe the floor in a 0-7 Champions League loss to Manchester City. Defeat came less than 24 hours after the club’s sporting director gave Tedesco two games to save his Schalke career.
Considered one of the Bundesliga’s up and rising young managers, last season Tedesco won plaudits for guiding his team to a surprise runners up position behind champions Bayern Munich. Telltale signs that this campaign won’t be a walk in the park when they lost their first five games – in the club’s worst ever start to a top flight campaign.
Though Tedesco steadied the ship towards December, humiliating losses to Fortuna Düsseldorf (0-4) and Werder Bremen (1-3) has left one of Germany’s best supported clubs hovering just above the relegation zone.
Anything but three points against Ralf Ragnick’s talented visitors will snap the patience of the club’s technical team.
Bundesliga action commences Friday night with Dieter Hecking’s Borussia Moenchengladbach hosting tricky Freiburg.
Last weekend’s 1-0 victory away to Mainz gave Hecking some respite following astonishing consecutive home losses to Wolfsburg (0-3) and Bayern Munich (1-5).
With Robert Kovac’s Bavarian leaders not in action until Sunday night when they host Mainz in the day’s late kick off, the onus is on longtime pacesetters Borussia Dortmund to make something of their trip to Hertha Berlin on Saturday.
Lucien Favre’s Black and Yellows are anticipating a challenging afternoon in Germany’s capital as Hertha held them to a two-all draw in the reverse fixture.
Other captivating duels to look forwards to include Bayer Leverkusen’s match up with Werder Bremen at the Bay Arena, the relegation dogfight between Augsburg and Hannover; as well as VFB Stuttgart’s home confrontation with free scoring Hoffenheim.
Eintracht Frankfurt are expected to prove too strong for Nuremberg despite only returning from Thursday’s Europa League encounter with Inter Milan on Friday morning.
ALL THE BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
FRIDAY:
-Borussia Moenchengladbach v Freiburg @10:30pm
SATURDAY:
-Augsburg v Hannover @5:30pm
-Schalke v Red Bull Leipzig @5:30pm
-Stuttgart v Hoffenheim @5:30pm
-Wolfsburg v Fortuna Düsseldorf @5:30pm
-Hertha Berlin v Borussia Dortmund @8:30pm
SUNDAY:
-Bayer Leverkusen v Werder Bremen @3:30pm
-Eintracht Frankfurt v Nuremberg @5:30pm
-Bayern Munich v Mainz @8pm
