Mr Skibbe, were you impressed by Schalke during their 3-1 Champions League win against Hapoel Tel Aviv on Wednesday?
Yes, very. They showed a great performance. But they also had a lot of space and the early goal helped. And you have to see that they were not challenged very much defensively. We will try to make it harder for them on Saturday.
What do you mean exactly?
We’re warned, Schalke are better than the current standings represent. But I still expect us to be in a situation where we can hold against them.
Would you be happy with a draw?
No, not in a home game. We want to win our games on home turf.
Georgios Tzavellas did not train with the team – why?
He had stomach problems, we will see if it will be OK for him to play the game.
How is Ioannis Amanatidis who had muscle tensions?
He was in training but with him we’ll also have to see if he’ll be fully fit until Saturday.
Will Alexander Meier rejoin the starting eleven?
He is training very well, is technically very skillful with a strong passing. It won’t be long for sure until he will play from the start again.
Will you change the team compared to the game at Kaiserslautern?
No, I think I will play the same or nearly the same team on Saturday.
How will you try to stop Schalke’s forwards Raul and Huntelaar?
We’ll have to interrupt the build up play of Schalke. If we get a grip on the passers in midfield we’ll also get a grip on the strikers.
Schalke has a problem in defense.
Yes, defensively they have been fragile this season. But they gained quality up front.
Four wins in a row – that happened last 11 years ago for Eintracht. Does this run appeal to you?
Every win means something to me, but I am not too interested in statistics. Of course it would be great to win on Saturday, in front of a sell out crowd at Commerzbank Arena.
Forward Theofanis Gekas seems to be on a roll currently. Did you expect him to have such an impact straight away?
We knew what he is capable of. But there will be also periods coming without him scoring in a few games. I hope he’ll have that phase during the winter break in test games (laughs).
