Schalke vs Maribor preview - Meyer calls for consistency

Posted Monday, September 29, 2014 by PA

It may have been the most important match of the season, but Saturday's 2-1 Revierderby win over local rivals Borussia Dortmund has already been consigned to the history books.

Schalke now face Maribor in their next major challenge, aware they can take nothing from their back-to-back Bundesliga victories when the Champions League anthem reverberates around the Veltins-Arena on Tuesday night.

"It's obviously never easy to find your focus for a Champions League game when you have just beaten Borussia Dortmund, but I'm sure the coach will get us ready for it," said Schalke midfielder Max Meyer on his club's website.

"We desperately want to beat Maribor now."

That would complete a much-needed week of successes for the Royal Blues, who had not won a single match this season up until last Tuesday.

"Beating Dortmund was nice, but at the end of the day, it was still only a win," added the 19-year-old. "We need to find some consistency over the coming weeks and build on this.

"I think after making a weak start to the season, we have finally picked ourselves up."

They have done that without Julian Draxler, who has missed both of Schalke's recent league wins over Werder Bremen and Dortmund due to suspension, but the Germany international is set to return on Tuesday night.

"We're certainly going to bring in a few fresh players," the club's director of sport Horst Heldt said.

Opponents Maribor made a promising start to their first group stage appearance in 15 years, holding Sporting Lisbon to a 1-1 draw in Slovenia.

They have also lost only one of their last six European away games and will therefore be looking to get a result in Gelsenkirchen, before their double-header Group G favourites Chelsea.

That is not going to be easy, though, according to their director of sport Zlatko Zahovic.

"We're playing in the country of the world champions against a top team," he told Kicker magazine, suggesting the size of the crowd is one of his team's biggest challenges.

"We're only used to playing in front of 4,000 in our league and that is something that we've got to get ready for."