Before the 13th matchday in the Bundesleague Bayern leads at the top of the chart – with no less than eight points ahead of Schalke and Frankfurt. On Saturday, the two runners-up could even take points from each other. They will contest in the top game of the match day at the Veltins-Arena.

The ambitious team Eintracht Frankfurt is still the surprise team of the season. In the recent weeks, in Hesse there was but a clear downward trend that could be seen. The last three away games were lost, the team of Armin Veh won a total of only seven points from their last six games. Currently, the unity of their points cushion is being melted, as at the beginning of the season it had retracted four consecutive wins from attacking football game with a rich tempo.

Against Schalke, the downward trend of the riser is likely to continue, in Gelsenkirchen their unity did not win them anything for twelve games. The Veltins Arena for them is a very bad medicine. The players have lost only once at home (against Bayern) this season and will continue on Saturday and go to the start with the confidence from the Champions League. There they defeated the Greek champions Olympiakos Piraeus yesterday with 1-0, and so moved early into the semi-final stages of the Champions League.

The not so shiny hard-earned victory was a real clearance for the team, after the disastrous performance in the League against Leverkusen. As long as a week ago, the Schalke team went to play in the Bay Arena. In the what was probably their worst performance of the season, it was never true for them.

Mr. Heldt, the manager and Mr. Stevens, coach of the team, did not spare their criticism, and spoke of the “collective failure” of the team. But with Bayer Leverkusen there was also a first class opponent, who knew how to use the weaknesses of Schalke, as the concord seems not to be currently in the position to do so. Although they celebrated on the last day a 4-2 win over Augsburg, this was the last – but not a true indicator.

With the certain qualification for the Championship League’s semi-finals secure in their pocket, the focus of Schalke will again be on the league and their own speeding up and acceleration. Most likely, the runner-up is likely to suffer a loss on Saturday. The bookmakers tip off on a Schalke victory.