Reus Needs To Be At His Best To Save Gladbach From A Sad Relegation.

Saturday’s matches saw Bundesliga title hopefuls Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and league leaders Borussia Dortmund continue their impressive form, which means a side like Schalke, who would have been hoping for a European place before the season started, will need take full points from their match to keep up with their rivals. The catch? They’re playing Mainz! Elsewhere, Borussia Monchengladbach will travel to Freiburg in what will be a tight game. With a win, Gladbach could lift themselves out of last place, while Freiburg could just to fifth, a point ahead of Bayern Munich. Let’s get to the games then.

Mainz v Schalke

Thomas Tuchel’s cinderella story looks to be fading after a dodgy patch of results over the last few weeks. After going seven unbeaten at the start of the season, things were looking very rosy for the Bundesliga’s surprise package. But, after a disappointing loss at home to Hamburg, Mainz’s form has dropped, and they’ve lost another four matches after that one. They certainly don’t look as incredible as they did early on, and some fans might be wondering how far they’ll have faded by the end of the season. With Schalke though, it really could go either way. They might be brilliant, or they might be as bad as we’ve seen them be so many times this season. Lately though, they’ve been on the up. After an embarrassing 5-0 loss to Kaiserslautern, Schalke have reversed their fortunes and have topped their group in the Champions League and they’ve even beaten Bayern Munich by two goals to nil. Now they’ve got another job on their hands, but I think it’s one they’ll be able to handle. Jurado and Raul have developed a strong understanding, Farfan has become one of the hardest working wingers in the league, and the Metzelder – Howedes partership is beginning to blossom. This is a Schalke win for me.

SC Freiburg v Borussia Monchengladbach

Papiss Cisse has become a very sought after striker amongst Europe’s elite after providing an endless supply of goals for his side so far this season, and if Freiburg have any chance of staying in the top half of the table, they’ll need to retain the services of their leading goal scorer. Gladbach fans, on the other hand, have a talisman of their own in the form of dynamic winger Marco Reus. If anyone’s going to keep Gladbach up this season, it’s going to be him. They’ve got a decent midfield on paper, with Michael Bradley and Thorben Marx battling in the middle, and Matmour and Reus supplying with, but they’ve conceded far too many goals and that’s been their downfall this season. If Freiburg can get the ball into Cisse on a regular basis, then Gladbach will be in some serious trouble here. If the visitors can control the midfield though, and think about creating some attacking moves on their own on the break, they might be able to snatch a result.