Back the hosts in Thursday's Europa League second-leg tie at Borussia-Park.
Monchengladbach v Schalke - Thursday 20:05, BT Sport ESPN
These two have grown pretty familiar with each other in the last couple of weeks as Schalke lost 4-2 at Monchengladbach in the league before they played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg of this tie. Since then Schalke have beaten Augsburg 3-0 at home, while Gladbach were beaten 2-1 at Hamburg, with just two points separating the two teams in the Bundesliga.
They’ve predominantly featured in the Champions League in recent times, but Gladbach have won only three of their 12 European home games since 2014/15. However, they beat Sevilla in the group stages of last season’s Champions League and drew against Juve, while this season they were unable to hold on to a lead against Barca as they were edged out 2-1 and they managed to hold City to a draw. All those aforementioned teams are much stronger than Schalke, whilst sides that managed a score draw in the first away leg of a Europa League knockout tie have won nine of the 13 returns since 2014/15, so Gladbach will fancy their chances here.
Schalke have lost five of their last nine away, conceding seven in their last two on their travels, and they’ve also lost their last four trips to Gladbach, despite netting in each of these. Indeed, since Gladbach have kept only two clean sheets in their last 10 at home, we’re backing Gladbach to win and both teams to score.
